Naruto Gaiden
by raidensokwl
Summary: The Crash has happened and Naruto finally decides to step up and be the ninja that he knew he could always be! My own take on the Naruto universe Post-Chuunin Exams Arc. Some AU here and there. Pairings will come and go.
1. Chapter 1

**Well, this one was on my mind a bit. Decided to take a short at it. I will still be working on my other one, but I've had a rather busy summer until further notice.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

(Konoha Stadium)

At first, it was just individual scattered clapping that became more numerous before it became a full on roar of clapping from among the seatings of the stadium before the individual yells of appreciation could be heard from amidst the loud clapping;

"That was great!"

"That was incredible!"

"Great fight shrimp!"

The last one caused one Uzumaki Naruto a tick mark to form on his head. There was no need to say anything about his height, a simple yell of praise was enough. There was simply no need for that.

But he didn't let that get him down, he had managed to defy all odds and managed to beat the so-called Hyuuga genius and he was going to milk this all it was worth. It was probably going to be the only time the villagers praised him for something before immediately going back to their indifferent ways.

And milk it he did by going on a victory lap around the entire stadium...twice, even though his battered and bruised body was complaining throughout the entire victory laps. He didn't pay it any mind.

Naruto was grinning all the way as he entered the contestants box. "Man Naruto…" the blonde turned to face an old friend of his, "I always thought you were the lameass type like me. Not the kick-ass type."

"We can't all be lazy like you Shikamaru." the blonde stated as he looked at his friend with the stupid grin still on his face. Even if he had taken what Shikamaru had said as an insult, he was far too happy to even care about that.

"What's wrong with being lazy?" Shikamaru drawled out with a sigh, "You get to do chill and relax without having to worry about anything. It's people like you that make things difficult for the unethusiastic like me."

"Then get enthusiastic." Naruto deadpanned at him.

"Now why would I do that?" Shikamaru questioned as he slumped himself over the railing of the contestant's box.

Naruto opened his mouth to give him all the benefits of being enthusiastic before realizing it was much easier being lazy than being enthusiastic in the slightest, "...Be quiet Shikimaru. Shouldn't you be worried about your own match?"

Smiling at his silent victory, Shikamaru answered the question, "My match is the last one in the series. And that's fine with me. Gives me time to chill and relax and debate whether I should just forfeit or not…" he then got a good look at Naruto and noticed his wounds, "You should go get yourself checked out." he advised with some concern, "Some of those bruises look particularly nasty."

Naruto scoffed, "Do you know who I am? These are nothing!" the blonde said as he waved his concern off, "And there's no way I'm missing Sasuke's match!" he had to know how strong exactly Sasuke had become during their month interlude before the finals. He wanted to know to compare himself against him and see if he would be able to win against him if-no, when they met in the second round.

Whilst he was lost in his own thoughts, the proctor announced that Sasuke's match was delayed until he had arrived, much to the chagrin and frustration of many of the spectators who had come to see the match between the Uchiha prodigy and Suna's 'Monster'.

"Seems like you've got some time." Shikamaru noted, "Go get your wounds checked on. There's no point in fighting a match with a damaged body."

"I'm fin-Ow!" the blonde hissed when he felt Shikamaru poke him randomly in the chest. Naruto glared at Shikamaru who had something of a bland 'I told you so.' face, "Fine. I'll go to the stupid infirmary...I better not miss something awesome." he grumbled as he left the area.

It had only taken several minutes of his time for Naruto to get to the infirmary and get some medical help that quickly healed any and all wounds on his body. The blonde was hastily making his way back to the contestants area hoping he hadn't missed anything of significance.

The problem was that whilst the blond had been making his way back to the contestants' box, he had been busy day dreaming about him defeating Sasuke in front of the crowds in the stadium and his crush Sakura praising him for such a feat he had thus had completely missed his turn and had continued walking forward. It wasn't until he had passed another turn in the corridor that he realised he had gotten himself lost. Hey, Konoha stadium catered to the needs of over 60,000 people, it was a pretty damn big place.

"Fuck." the blonde cursed as he looked around for any indication to where he was, "Oh man...I better not get disqualified because I got lost. That would be so lame and pathetic." he cursed as he tried to retrace his steps, "Why isn't there any signs showing me where I am dammit!?"

His keen ears managed to pick up a sound from a room across the way and the blond immediately burst into said room thinking that there could be someone in the room who could tell him where the hell he was. Instead, the blonde blinked when he noticed the room was a fairly non-descript, albeit large storage room that held various items...in storage which included mops, buckets, brushes, three coffins, stereos...wait what?

The blonde panned his eyes to the three coffins in the middle of the room with an undescript expression as he didn't know how to take this. Why would there be coffins in the storage room? Well, he knew that deaths did happen in the Chuunin Exams and he had nearly been killed himself when his opponent Neji had declared his intention to kill him, maybe the coffins were for genin who die in the exams, but it would make much more sense if they were near or placed somewhere in the infirmary rather than all the way here.

Scratching his head in confusion, Naruto decided to ignore it and turned to leave the room before hearing a small bang coming from one of the coffins. Naruto stopped dead still as he gulped. He was a super-strong ninja and all, but even he had his weakness, and that weakness was ghosts...and mostly other undead stuff, "Please don't be a zombie…" he prayed to whatever deity in the heavens as he turned around to face the coffins once more.

For all intents and purposes, he should have just closed the door, made his way back to the contestants area and forget everything that had happened here, but his curiosity forced him to stay and made him go towards the coffins, "Eh hello...is anyone in there?" he called out lightly.

He let out a sigh as he didn't receive any sort of acknowledgement back. Actually, even if he did call out, why would a zombie answer him back? That was just asinine if it wanted to have him for dinner. The blonde stood stock still as the conundrum went on in his head before he heard another light thud from inside the coffin which caused him to let out a quiet shriek and jump back.

"..." He blinked when he thought he had heard something or someone call out to him. Looking around in the room and in the corridor, he realised he was still alone and the blonde strained his ears whilst sending chakra to his ears to increase their sensitivity, "He...lp…" he heard the barely audible cry for help from inside one of the coffins.

And now he was utterly conflicted. He wanted to go and immediately save the person inside the coffin. Getting buried alive just wasn't a nice thing to do but he was conflicted as to whether the person inside the coffin was actually real and not some half-decayed person out to eat him.

He snapped his fingers as realisation hit him and grinned as he made a cross seal, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)." quickly and in a puff of smoke, a corporeal clone of Naruto appeared and looked at its creator with a look of anger and hate, "Oh shut up and open the coffin." he ordered with a roll of the eyes as he pointed at one of the coffins that was in the middle. Really, his clones complained about any menial task he set them whenever they weren't actually in a fight. Did Kakashi's clones give him this much hassle?

The clone grumbled as it made its way towards the wooden box where the dead were placed and crouched down and grabbed the edges of the coffin before slowly and carefully sliding it to the side to open it. He was going to do this carefully and even if he was a clone, he wasn't going to be anything's food.

Naruto watched in rapt attention and anticipation for anything as his clone opened the coffin, "Well?" he asked when he heard the thud of the lid hit the floor, "Is it a zombie? A ghoul? Anything?" he asked somewhat fearfully.

The clone blinked as it looked into the coffin, "Ah no...its actually a girl and she looks pretty bad boss." the clone answered, "She's way too pale."

"She maybe a vampire then." the blonde replied. Vampires where pale since blood didn't flow around their bodies on account of them being dead and all.

The clone just cast his creator a dry look, "Just get over here would you?" he asked, more likely ordered to the man who could easily end its existence with a thought.

Naruto grumbled as he made his way to the coffin and looked down into it. And the clone was right, it was a girl, a girl he had seen before actually, "Wait...isn't she that Kin girl Shikamaru fought in the preliminaries?" he asked, "What's she doing here?" and more importantly, what was she doing here in a coffin of all things? Was that her hobby or something?

"I don't know, but all I know is that she's breathing...so she _definitely_ not anything dead."

The blonde crouched down and checked her vital signs and noticed that her pulse was really low. She needed medical attention soon, either wise she was going to die, "Help...me…" he heard the girl say in nothing more than a hoarse whisper.

Naruto snapped his attention to her face and saw her half-lidded eyes that were glazed over, she didn't look like she was even aware of her surroundings, "Hey!" the blonde called out as her eyes started closing, "Keep it together! I'll get you some help!" it didn't matter whether if she was from a rival village or not, right now, she needed help.

The blonde immediately picked the girl up and left the storage room in a hurry towards the infirmary. Whilst he was running towards his destination, he had to wonder what kind of person would put someone in a coffin that was clearly still alive.

Back in the storage room, the clone was still in the room looking around and in an extracurricular activity, he had decided to see what contents the other coffins possessed and noticed that all of them had bodies inside them and at least these ones where dead instead of the girl from the other one.

Having its curiosity satisfied, the clone closed all the lids and unbeknownst to it, whilst sliding the coffin lids to open and close the coffins, had scrapped some wood off that had black ink on it, before it dispelled itself.

(Later)

Naruto stood on a branch glaring at the opponent in front of him, Sabaku no Gaara who looked no longer human, but was now closer to a monster as sand covered his entire body into making something of a pseudo-tanuki.

The fight had been getting progressively one-sided as the Sand-nin body was slowly covered by sand. It seemed as if the more sand that covered him, the stronger, faster Gaara got and nothing Naruto could do seemed to be able to work as Naruto couldn't bring enough damage to the sand clad boy and put in enough damage.

Naruto stared uneasily to the side to see his pink-haired crush Sakura pinned to a tree by a giant sand claw, with each second, the claw pressing in on her, crushing her. With each second that passed, time ran out for her, 'Sakura...'

"**Hey! What's wrong!?"** Gaara yelled at Naruto with a maniacal grin as drew freely flowed from his mouth, "**You came chasing me all the way here and that's all you can do? Pathetic!"**

Naruto didn't answer as he removed an explosive tag from his supply pouch and wrapped it around the the kunai that he had in his hands. He looked defiantly at Gaara, 'I don't know what I'm going to do...' he thought as he brought up his hands into the ram sign to call upon his chakra, 'But I'll give it my best shot!'

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" the blonde created four clones before launching himself of the branch he had been standing on, "Here I go! Brand New Advanced Taijutsu Technique: Bunshin Taiatari (Clone Body Blow)!" the blonde used his clones to garner Gaara's attention which they did as three of them combined themselves to block a sand claw strike from the teenager before another slingshotted the original Naruto straight at Gaara.

Gaara reacted by sending out yet another claw of sand and Naruto countered this move by creating more clones which he used to block the claw and use them as a launch pad to jump over his fellow albeit enemy genin, "Once more!" he declared from behind him and created another clone to launch himself of to strike at Gaara's exposed rear, "Here we go! Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ogi: Sennen Goroshi (Hidden Leaf Village Secret Finger Jutsu: One Thousand Years of Pain)! I learned this from Kakashi-sensei!" he added as an afterthought as he thrust in his kunai straight into Gaara's rear.

Silence flew in the clearing as the two opponents stared at each other, Naruto in disbelief at the fact that his jutsu didn't work and Gaara just staring at Naruto with what looked like a dry expression. It was sort of difficult to tell due to the fact that his face was covered by sand and everything.

Eventually, Naruto found himself feeling the brunt of a tail whip to his face sending him corralling into away from the red head. As he flew, Naruto counted down the seconds in his head before smirking, "Boom." he declared silently before the explosive tag on the kunai exploded in _really_ close proximity of Gaara. Naruto found himself from being saved from adding to his injuries by Sasuke who used himself as a cushion to lessen the impact Naruto would have had with the trunk of a tree.

'Ga...Gaara...' Temari thought in shock as she watched disbelievingly at the site of the explosion, 'Just what is going on? Are they normal!?' she thought as she looked towards the two male genins of Konoha.

The smoke cleared to reveal Gaara with one half of his sand armour freely falling down like the sand it was made out of, '**Aghh...who would've known he would go after the weak point hidden by the tail...**' Naruto wasn't aware of any weak point, that was just pure utter luck on his part. It seemed he had more to thank Kakashi about, '**I wasn't injured...'** he thought as he looked at his right side, '**But the damage to my body...'**

He smirked maniacally or it was just the form his body was in that made his smirk maniacal as his eyes panned towards his blonde opponent who was chatting with Sasuke, '**Seems like I underestimated him a little...'** "**Oh well...I'll just end it now."** he declared with finality as he prepared himself.

"Naruto…" Sasuke said as he struggled to get onto his feet, "Take Sakura and run. If only me, I'll hold him down even for just a second." he limped his way forward, "I don't to see anyone dear to me die again…"

Naruto looked utterly surprised at that sudden confession as he thought Sasuke didn't have anyone he could call dear to him. Gaining his wits back about him, he smiled to himself as he also got to his feet, "Why don't you just sit this one down Sasuke?" he offered, "I mean look at you, you can barely stand. Just leave this to me…" he said as he glared directly at Gaara, "Neither me, you or Sakura-chan is going to die here…" he placed his hands into a cross seal, "Full Power Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he declared as he covered the entire tree tops and then some with an amassed army of orange and yellow.

He grinned as he pointed directly at Gaara, "Sorry to keep you waiting! The Naruto Gaiden starts now!"

Gaara looked around warily as he tried to count all the clones that surrounded him and failing badly whilst he was at it, "**What...What's with this number of clones?"** he asked particularly no-one. He was starting to doubt his sand covered form would be able to take in the combined firepower and hits of all the clones around him.

Temari, just like her brother was just in shock as her as she failed to even get an approximate count of clones in the area, "Wh...What is this?"

"Alright everybody!" The original addressed to his legion of clones, "Jump!" and with that command, the clones immediately jumped...towards a surprised and stunned Gaara who was still coming to terms with the number of clones. The clones digged into their supply pouches and all brought out shuriken, "Shihohappo Shuriken (Four Directions Eight Directions Shuriken)!"

'Dammit...I still can't move. I'll have to guard with the sand.' Gaara thought as he brought out his lone, good claw to protect any vitals as he saw the near endless rain of shuriken coming straight at him.

Gaara lowered his arm after feeling the end of the shuriken attack before several Naruto's rushed him and kicked him into the air, one after another.

U!

Zu!

Ma!

Ki!

As Gaara was struck into the air from the repeated kicks, his eyes widened when he saw a wave of nothing but orange appear in front of him, all Narutos with their fists cocked back, and he could feel them all around him, he was surrounded and what was coming next was going to hurt, "Naruto Nisei Rendan (Naruto Uzumaki 2k Barrage)!"

Gaara's body was given an obscene amount of physical offence to his body, his sand armour obliterated after the initial hundred punches or so, rendering it useless against the rest of the assault. As he was suspend in the air, reeling from the punches, two clones appeared in front of him and gave him a synchromatic haymaker to the face, sending him spiralling to the ground in a thud.

"**Urgh…"** Gaara groaned as he couldn't find it in himself to get up, "**This guy...who the hell is he? All of a sudden…"**

Naruto and his clones leaped into the air to get to the forest ground below, "Alright! This time we're going to use both our fists and legs! Get ready for double the damage!"

Gaara glared up at the falling mass of orange and yellow with an angry glare, '**How can he…?'** he asked no-one in particular as he remembered the steely defiant gaze Naruto had given him before, "**There's no way...There's no way I can lose!"** he finished with a roar.

Naruto blinked when he felt something spike and absently wondered what the hell that was before noticing a sudden strange sensation from the poor sob in the ground that was going to nothing more than paste after he had finished with him.

Of course, that was until he was sent flying by a sudden rush of wind and dust that dispelled many of his clones and the ones that went destroyed by the initial impact were destroyed by colliding into the trees, ground or into each other.

Naruto landed in a heap in a bundle of leaves before quickly getting to his feet ready for whatever Gaara had done before seeing the gigantic creature in front of him that towered over even the trees of Konoha, 'That's the creature inside him...gigantic.' he finished with an afterthought as he was filled with awe and fear at the sight.

He was lucky enough to get his wits back about him as he noticed a little bit too late that he was being surrounded by sand, 'Shit! I used up too much of my chakra for the clones!' he thought as the sand encased his entire form. He caught a glance of the still pinned Sakura and his eyes hardened as he bit his finger.

Gaara in his gigantic form looked down straight at Naruto, '**Too think I would be forced to use this form...well this is the end.' "Sabaku Sousou (Desert Coffin)!"**

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!"

In a massive burst of smoke that burst the sand that was encasing him and Naruto found himself in something of a grandiose pose atop the head of Gamabunta. He ignored the rambling of Gamabunta underneath as he was quite proud of himself at what he had just done, 'Finally, the results of my training.'

He wiped his nose as he smirked at Gaara, "Gamabunta, help a guy out and let's fight this guy!"

Gamabunta turned his attention from Naruto to the giant sand tanuki in front of him, '**If I remember correctly...that's the Ichibi no Tanuki, Shukaku of the Desert.'** after thinking it over for less than a second, Gamabunta gave his answer, "**...Nope!**"

Naruto face faulted at that answer and looked down at the boss toad, "W-Why!? You said you would make me your underling the last time!" he pointed out frankly. He really didn't fancy his chances fighting something that big all by his lonesome without his own toad that rivalled it in size, "Isn't a boss supposed to help his underlings when they're in trouble!? I'm in trouble!" he begged.

The boss toad nodded, "**I remember saying that...but I didn't exchange sakazuki with you."** he pointed out in an irritated tone, '**Why do I have to do anything for this guy? A big pain in the butt...I can just feel it.'**

The blonde was practically on his knees hoping against all hope, "Bu-But I'm not 20 years old yet! I can't drink!"

"**Aren't you a ninja?"** Gamabunta pointed out, "**You might as well be an adult."** he finished with a drag of his pipe.

Naruto stared down at the toad with a comical expression at that little tidbit of information. He was a ninja and therefore an adult and therefore can drink any alcoholic beverage he downright pleased.

He was about to answer before he felt a weight on his head and noticed his first summon, Gamakichi sitting atop his head, "**Hey pops! Why don't you help him out? I like him!"**

Gamabunta narrowed his eyes at his son, "**Gamakichi, what are you doing here?"**

Gamakichi faced Gaara/Shukaku, "**I just wanted to see the world and all.**" he then indicated towards the jinchuuriki, "**And then that guy tried to bully me."**

Gamabunta glared at the sand spirit, "**Alright kid, welcome to the family. We're going to have to share that drink later! Right now, its time for some payback!"** he finished as he drew his giant tanto from its sheath.

The two giant creatures faced off against each other as the wind swept by them before the boss toad made the first move, "**Hold on now!"** he ordered as he lept at the frog and brought out his tanto in a slash into Shukaku's arm and with one might heave lopped of the arm and came to a skidding halt on the other side, "**That almost took everything I had, and all I took was a lousy arm."**

He glared at his opponent as he readed himself once more, "**Hey kid, got any fire jutsu?"** he asked, **"I can spit out some oil on him and you can set it on fire. That should deal some damage."**'

Naruto chuckled sheepishly as he scratched his head, "Ahh...I don't know any fire jutsu...I only know a few…"

Gamabunta stayed quiet for a few seconds, "**You're a ninja of Konoha and you don't even know **_**one**_** Katon (Fire Release) jutsu? Are you fire retardant or something?"**

Naruto had an air of depression at that, it wasn't his fault Kakashi never taught them any cool jutsus like the Chidori. Maybe he would ask later, he did need some more jutsu in his arsenal, because setting the sand demon in front of him on fire does sound like a devilishly good idea.

"Interesting...Interesting...you're a very interesting person Uzumaki!" the sound of Gaara's voice rang out as he appeared on top of Shukaku's head, "But now, I'll show you the true power of the Sand Demon! Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu (Feigning Sleep Jutsu)!"

Gaara slumped over as Shukaku's star-shaped eyes spun wildly before a new shrill voice cried out to the heavens, "**Yatta! I'm free!"**

Naruto blinked at the sudden change in attitude, "What's happening now?" he asked to anyone that could give him an answer.

Gamabunta let out a wisp of smoke as he exhaled in exasperation, "**Trouble. That's just what happened."**

Shukaku after exclaiming his happiness at his freedom noticed the giant toad and pointed at him, "**You! I'll kill you first! Fuuton: Renkuudan (Drilling Air Bullet)!"** he launched a massive compressed ball of air towards Gamabunta who retaliated with his own attack, "**Suiton: Teppodama (Water Release: Gunshot)!"**

The two jutsu collided in mid air and released a shower of water that dropped to the forest floor below.

XxX

Sasuke watched the fight green with envy. What Naruto was doing was seemingly beyond him. He knew what the Kuchiyose jutsu was and that only people with strong and large amounts of chakra would be able to use it to summon boss-level creatures and he was sure the toad in front of him was definitely a boss level summoning, 'Is this Naruto? Where did he learn this? Was he always this strong? It's like he hit some sort of mental switch.'

Temari was completely overwhelmed at what she was seeing. Her brother, Gaara, a person that was feared by many throughout the entirety of Suna due to his habit of killing people and what he held was being fought on even grounds by the blonde kid that she had immediately wrote off in the beginning.

Kankuro who was beside her looked up in surprise as he rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming, "This boy. He isn't normal. He's keeping up with Gaara!"

XxX

After barely avoiding being obliterated by a ball of compressed air from Shukaku, Gamabunta was currently scurrying around avoiding any and all airballs send in his direction, "How do we end this?" Naruto asked from atop Gamabunta after realising this could continue on for forever. If Shukaku was a demon like the Kyuubi inside him, then he had a lot of chakra at his disposal and Gamabunta didn't. It was simply like that.

"**That sleeping kid!"** Gamabunta yelled out as he released several water bullets to destroy air bullets sent his way, "**We have to wake him up! That way, the jutsu will break!"**

Naruto nodded in understanding, "How though?" he asked, "I don't have anything ranged on me!" he admitted much to his horror. Really, he had to address that issue soon.

"**I'll get us close enough. You do the rest!"** the toad ordered, "**But I don't have claws and the likes so I can't grab him. We'll have to use a Henge (Transform) to make me something with claws!"**

Naruto nodded his head fervently, "I can do that! Let's go Boss!" the blonde gathered his chakra as Gamabunta closed in on Shukaku as fast as he could whilst dodging air bullets, "Henge (Transform)!" the blonde declared when they were close enough and the entire frog was encased in smoke before a giant, red-furred nine tailed fox burst out of the smoke and latched onto the sand spirit.

Getting into gear, Naruto jumped onto Shukaku and channelling whatever chakra he had left to his feet to make sure he ran somewhat evenly on the malleable sand underneath him, he ran towards the prone Gaara.

Naruto delivered a powerful haymaker to the redhead, "Wake up you bastard!"

And he did. The punch forced Gaara to awaken and retake control, much to Shukaku's anger and chagrin as he returned into his prison, "Don't come anywhere near me!" Gaara yelled as he controlled the sand body to pin Naruto down as a lick of sand went towards him.

Gamabunta used his tongue to wrap Naruto in a protective cocoon. Naruto looked down when he felt something move up his legs and noticed sand from Shukaku's body crawling up his legs. Gnashing his teeth, Naruto tried to focus his chakra and realised he didn't have any left to use to break out as he was.

And then he realised he had _another _source of chakra to call upon, 'Please...I'm begging you, let me use your chakra to save everyone!' he begged as he concentrated.

'...**Only because I rather not lose to that fool of a tanuki.'** he heard a voice say before the potent chakra of his tenant overflowed his chakra pathways.

Newly energized, the blonde emerged from the cocoon and rushed towards Gaara and threw a punch which was blocked by sand and tried another punch but that was also blocked before using his final weapon, his head, to headbutt Gaara straight in the forehead.

That was enough for Gaara to lose his concentration as the giant sand construct started losing its form as Naruto and Gaara fell to the earth below. His landing was softened by the large amounts of sand that was previously Shukaku's body as he crashed into the forest floor.

Gamakichi looked down at the blonde from his place on top of his father's head, "**I like that kid pops. He's insane. Can I hang around with him some more?"**

Gamabunta chuckled, "**If its fine with him Gamakichi. Jiraiya sure picked up an interesting one this time."** he finished as they left in a burst of smoke.

Somewhat energized from the rush of the Kyuubi's chakra in his system, Naruto gingerly got to his feet and trudged his way towards the unmoving form of Gaara. Gaara noticed him and immediately had a look of fear come to him as he tried to force his body to move away from him, "Stay away from me! I don't want to die!"

Naruto stopped as he looked at him, "You go around killing people without giving a damn and now that you're the one near death, you get all pissy!? Act like a ninja dammit!" he yelled at the red head, "Besides, I'm not going to kill you...you're like me. You know the same pain that I know…I could have ended up like you. Sometimes I wonder why I didn't..."

He heard the sounds of movement as Kankuro and Temari appeared in front of the downed Gaara. His eyes turned crimson red as his pupils slitted as he looked at the new arrivals which caused them to stiffen somewhat at his gaze and Gaara, especially Gaara, "You try to harm me or anyone in the village, I'm going to beat you down every single damn time. As long as you think fighting for yourself means strength, I'll always be stronger than you."

He waved his hand in a shooing motion, "I've got more than enough energy to take on all of you guys. And I just _beat_ the guy who had been terrorizing you guys since God-knows. Take him and leave."

The two older siblings shared a look before doing what was offered to them and quickly left. Temari cast a glance behind her to the disappearing form of the blonde, 'What a weird guy...'

Naruto blinked before taking to the trees to arrive one of the tree branches where Sasuke was looking over a now released Sakura, "Sasuke! Is Sakura-chan alright?" he asked.

Sasuke looked up at Naruto and nodded, "Yeah...you saved her."

Naruto sensed some sort of emotion in his voice but was far too relieved to see Sakura safe to care or try to figure out what, "Phew...that's good. That's right! Sasuke would you do me a favour?"

Sasuke looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "Favour?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah...you see, I need you to catch me when I pass out."

Sasuke blinked, "What are you-Hey!" he shouted as he grabbed Naruto's jacket as he was leaning back and was about to fall back to the ground below which was several or so metres away and definitely break a few bones or die.

"Dammit dobe!" Sasuke cursed as he laid him on the branch, "What now? I don't have the energy to carry them both…"

(Several Days Later)

It had been nearly a week since the Oto-Suna Invasion that had become to be known as the Konoha Crash. Due to the appearance of Orochimaru in the second stage of the exam, the Sandaime in all his wisdom and knowledge of his former student knew something was up and thus had, along with the Jounin Commander, had prepared themselves for anything, including an attack of some sort and thus, the attack came off as something of a victory to them due to the low number of casualties inflicted on them compared to the invading force.

Although the inclusion of Suna in their betrayal had surprised them and had put off their plans a bit, it was nothing for them to change their plans and strategies to meet the new conditions revealed to them.

At the moment, Konoha was still in a state of high alert and all ninjas above a certain grade of Chuunin rank were all on high alert to be called upon for missions or be sent to on border patrol just to give a show off force.

There had been talk of something of probes to Konoha and Hi no Kuni's status by other villages already but not enough to be considered hostile.

"Dammit!" Naruto yelled out in frustration as he dropped a piece of debris into one of the many collection points, "Why the hell are we doing this for!? We should be out there kicking Oto or Sound ninja ass! Not this crap!" he finished as he motioned towards the various debris in this section of the street, Team 7 which was only comprised of Naruto and Kakashi due to the fact that Sasuke and Sakura were in hospital and 10 had been assigned to help clean up after the damage caused by the battle.

"Jeez Naruto, stop complaining would you?" Shikamaru asked from his place across the street, "We're genin...in war time situations we're mostly reserved as something of a Home Guard and in the most extreme cases messengers and suppliers for the front lines." he said in a bid to explain to the male of the two blondes in the group why they went out 'kicking-ass' so to speak.

Naruto huffed as he looked at Shikamaru, "Yeah so? What's your point?"

He was slapped on the back of the head by Ino, "He just made his point baka!" the girl shouted. Ino crossed her arms, "And the only one we're actually at 'war' with is Oto. Daddy said Suna was tricked into attacking us by Orochimaru, so they sent an offer of surrender recently."

Asuma who was standing nearby with Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "How do you know that?" he asked genuinely interested. He knew of it due to the fact he was the son of the Hokage. The perks of being born in a powerful family/clan.

Ino huffed with pride as she crossed her arms, "I have my sources."

'Probably her father.' every male thought as her father was one of the higher-ups in the Konoha hierarchy and he was also best friends with the Jounin Commander to boot.

Chouji dropped a bundle of debris and other things into the tip and looked at Naruto, "Say Naruto…" he began in a testing manner, "You can make clones that can touch stuff right?" he asked and Naruto nodded, "Then why don't you just make dozens of them to help us out?"

Naruto blinked as he looked at the portly boy with a look of a fish out water, "...I can do that can't I?" he muttered.

Ino looked at him with a look of anger, "I can't believe this!" she breathed out, "You're telling me I was getting my hands dirty when I could have had dumb, blonde clones do it for me?" she questioned in disbelief.

"Hey!" Naruto yelled in outrage and offence at what had just been said, "I take offence at that! I'm not dumb!" but most people would say he was. His lack of general knowledge didn't help with that generalisation. Also the abundant orange. The orange certainly didn't help.

"Yes you are. I mean, you got the lowest grades in the Academy and then there's this…!" she struggled to say the words as she motioned with her hands the orange he was currently wearing.

Naruto took offence at that once more. What was wrong with his attire? Orange was perfectly fine! And she couldn't talk! She wore purple! But then again, purple was more difficult to notice, but hey! Had she ever tried painting the Hokage Monument in broad daylight and getting away with it?

"Orange is cool." Naruto stated simply with crossed arms, showing his seriousness in the matter.

"Maybe...but not in such a copious amount." She stated rather dryly.

Naruto looked at her blankly, "...Copious?" he asked in an unsure tone.

Ino just looked at him with the same unchanging dry expression before turning her head, "See? Dumb." she said as she walked away to continue with their mission.

"Lots." Shikamaru drawled out from nearby. He felt Naruto's head turn towards him, "She meant lots. Copious means in abundant supply or quantity of. So she meant lots of orange." he explained as he continued on with his job reluctantly.

Naruto nodded at that and added that new word to his vocabulary. He didn't really help himself on proving that he wasn't dumb by not knowing that word did he? It wasn't even his fault, if she just wanted to say he wore a lot of orange, she should have just said. Not use some fancy, rarely heard word.

"Look at our little genin getting along all fine and everything." Kakashi said offhandedly, his eyes never tearing away from his book, "We should make this a regular thing."

Asuma chuckled as he leaned back into the wall as he watched the genin do their work, this time, with a little help from Naruto's clones, "I don't know. Ino was only eager about this because she thought Sasuke would be here…" he took a drag of his cigarette, "But as you can see, no Sasuke, no happy Ino."

"And yet I find myself not really caring either way." Kakashi added in, "The beauty of my apathy to all things." he looked up from his book to see a bear masked ANBU standing atop one of the intact powerlines, "Can I help you Kuma-san?"

The ANBU nodded, "Yes, Hokage-sama has called for Uzumaki-san."

Kakashi and Asuma took all that in stride, as both of them were privy to the relationship between the village pariah and the village leader, "Sure thing Kuma-san, I'll relay the message right away." he said with an eye smile.

Kuma shook his head in amusement, "Sorry Kakashi-sempai, but Hokage-sama was absolutely adamant that you inform Uzumaki-san whilst I was in hearing range."

"Dang." he let out in disappointed but his tone and facial expression didn't show it, "And here I wanted to have some fun. Hey Naruto! Come over here!" he finished by calling out to the blonde...causing all the male copies in the area to turn to the silver haired ninja, "...I meant the original!" he rectified.

A collective groan rang out as the original Naruto made himself known as he heeded his sensei's call and made his way towards him, "It seems today is your lucky day, Hokage-sama has called for you."

"Jiji called for me?" he repeated before grinning and running off in the direction of the tower, not without saying goodbye to his fellow genin of course, "Later suckers!" the blonde chuckled as he sped away.

The others merely looked down the road he disappeared to before Ino spoke, "Wait! Where is he going!?" she demanded to know, "We have all this stuff to clean up!"

Shikamaru sighed, "Why does it matter Ino? He's gone, let's just leave it at that and get back to work. I can't believe I actually said that." he finished with a mumble.

She stomped her leg, she wasn't going to just leave it, "Yes it does matter! Why does he get off…" she looked up to the sky and calculated the time from the sun's position before looking back down, "Three hours early! That's unfair!"

"Because Hokage-sama called for him. Didn't you hear Kakashi-sensei tell him?" Choji said as he diligently continued working without interruption.

"Oh." was her answer.

"That's right." Asuma interjected with a chuckle, "The Hokage called for him. Now why don't you guys continue working, whilst we adults just sit back and relax? Don't you just love child labour Kakashi?"

Kakashi nodded his head in agreement, "Whenever I feel down, I always remember that somewhere out there is a genin shoveling a pile of manure and it always makes my day." he shared much to the amusement of Asuma.

"I can drink to that." the bearded jounin remarked with a chuckle.

(Hokage Tower - Hokage's Office)

"Like I said the last time sensei, it can only be her." Jiraiya stated as he leaned against the wall in the office, "I'm not Hokage material, knowing me, I'd probably implement a kunoichi no dress code if I was...and probably end up not living long enough to enjoy the code."

Sarutobi chuckled at what he heard his student say as he took a smoke of his pipe, "I understand that. But do you have confidence in that you'll be able to convince her?" he asked with genuine interest, "She isn't the most receptive of people to the word 'Hokage'."

Jiraiya waved the concern off, "Just leave it to me sensei, I can be one of the most persuasive people in the world when the situation calls for it." he finished with a grin and a thumbs up.

"if you say so…" the older man said with a tone that didn't convey full belief in what his former student had just said, "Ah, I believe we have a visitor."

As soon as he finished saying that, the door burst open and in entered one Uzumaki Naruto in all his 4ft 9in glory, "Yo jiji!" he loudly greeted, "You called for me?" he finished as he closed the door.

Sarutobi chuckled lightly, "I believe I did." he answered as he opened a drawer.

The blonde crossed his arms as he waited for the old Hokage to expand on why he was called and didn't receive one, decided to prompt the old man to go into further detail into why he was called, maybe he was finally going senile? "So why did you call for me?" he asked.

"Oh nothing much." Sarutobi said as he pulled out a scroll, "Just to do three things." he said as he placed a small scroll onto his desk.

Naruto tilted his head in confusion, "Three things?" he asked, "What three things? I'm not in trouble am I? I don't remember doing anything that would get me into trouble lately." and he meant it. The village was going through the process of rebuilding. It didn't need him going around causing chaos left, right and center. He would do that after everything was back to normal.

Sarutobi chuckled at that was he waved his concern off, "Oh nothing of the sort. The first thing I want to do is to pass on a message of thank you from one Tsuchi Kin."

Naruto blinked as he tried to recall the name before failing and squinting his eyes towards the Sandaime, "...Who?"

"The girl you saved during the finals." No sign of recollection from Naruto and Sarutobi decided to add further detail, "The Oto-kunoichi you said was left in a casket."

"Oh her!" the blonde finally let out in realisation, "How is she? Is she alright?"

Sarutobi nodded, "Yes. She'll be fine. She's currently still recovering due to the effects of the jutsu she was to be used for."

The blonde squinted his eyes in a fox like manner as he looked at the Sandaime, "What jutsu?"

"A jutsu which brings me to the second thing I want to do today; to say 'Thank you Naruto.'" the Sandaime said much to the surprise of Naruto who was confused as to why the Sandaime would thank him, "The girl you saved was to be used as a sacrifice for a jutsu that would have brought someone back from the dead. By removing her from the coffin, you cancelled the jutsu and thus removed one potential enemy that I had to fight during the attack."

Naruto slowly nodded as he took in all of that information, "So you're saying that…" he said testingly, "If I hadn't opened that coffin, this Kin girl would have been sacrificed to bring back a ninja, someone powerful I take it, to fight against you?" Hiruzen nodded in confirmation and Naruto snapped his fingers, "Dammit! If I knew that would have happened, I would've have removed the other bodies in the other coffins too!"

Hiruzen chuckled, "It doesn't matter anyway. Whatever you did to the other bodies somehow messed up Orochimaru's jutsu as the revived ninja I had to fight gained some considerable amount of willpower and aided me in my fight against him by giving me indications of what they were going to do and how to counter it." he took a deep breath, "If you hadn't done that, I would surely have died."

Naruto gasped at that, "Don't say that old man! You're the Hokage! It would take more than a scaly, pedo-freak to put you down!"

Hiruzen chuckled at the show of faith in him, "I might be powerful Naruto-kun, but I am also old. I am not as strong as I once was. If the situation was different and maybe in a different life, I would surely have died during the invasion."

Naruto frowned at that. He could hear the truth in the Sandaime's word. He knew he was old, but to him, the Sandaime would always be this powerful old man that always looked after him, "Well...then you better pass me the hat then and go retire!"

At that, Hiruzen smirked, "Hmm...I don't think you can be Hokage quiet yet Naruto-kun, but…" he paused as he picked up the scroll on the table and threw it at Naruto who caught it, "I think you're making progress into taking the hat."

Naruto blinked in confusion at what he meant before looking at the scroll wondering what it was until he saw the single word 'CHUUNIN' on it. Seeing that word caused his eyes to widen as his mind raced at the thought of the only possibility of what the scroll meant as he slowly looked up to the Sandaime, "Jiji...is this?" he breathed out.

Sarutobi nodded with a small smile on his face, "Yes it is. Congratulations Naruto-kun, you're now a Chuunin of Konohagakure. The first in your class to be made chuunin I believe, well done."

Naruto's eyes shone brightly as he jumped up in exclamation, "YATTA! I'm a chuunin! I'll have the hat in no time!" he cheered to himself in abundant happiness before rushing towards the desk and tackling the Sandaime in a hug, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"You deserve it gaki. You beat Neji when the odds where against you and managed to to go on and defeat Sabaku no Gaara. Someone of at least jounin-level would be able to deal with." Jiraiya finally said after having watched the interaction from his spot.

Naruto paused in his squeezing of the life of the Sandaime to turn and look at Jiraiya, "Ero-sennin…" the blonde said, "How long have you been there?" he genuinely asked.

Jiraiya sweatdropped, "Did you just notice just now?"

Naruto nodded, "Eh yeah. Seems like I have to be more aware of my surroundings then." the blonde finished rather sheepishly.

"Well, it isn't your fault for not noticing a master spy such as me." Jiraiya said in a rather grandiose and haughty manner, "Anyway, how long are you going to deprive Sarutobi-sensei of oxygen for Naruto?"

Naruto blinked in confusion before turning to look at Sarutobi who he still had in something of a death vice and noticed he was somewhat pale from the lack of oxygen. Naruto quickly let go, "Oh sorry jiji!" he apologised, "You're still alive right?"

Sarutobi took a few minutes to get some oxygen into his lungs but gave confirmation he was alright by nodding his head, "I'll be fine...you have quite the grip Naruto-kun." he coughed a bit to clear his throat, "Anyway Naruto-kun, as I was saying, well done on your promotion to chuunin. I'm sure you know what the responsibilities of a chuunin entail don't you?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah! We get to lead teams of ninja on missions!"

Jiraiya chuckled, "Kid, if we let every rookie chuunin lead a team on a mission, we would have far higher casualty numbers than we'd like. At best you would lead a team of genin on D or simple C-rank missions to gain some experience...but that won't be for half a year at least." the Sannin stated as he burst the bubble the blonde was on.

Sarutobi nodded in agreement with what Jiraiya had just said, "And Naruto-kun, the majority of the promotion panel were against you being promoted."

"What! Why!?" the blonde cried out demanding to know why he was nearly passed over for a promotion.

The aged Hokage cleared his throat as he began to explain, "Let's see...the majority pointed out to your numerous reports about your misconduct and your bouts of minor insubordination." Naruto flinched, that probably wasn't a good thing to have in your record if you were looking for a promotion. He noted to himself that he was going to have to change that aspect about himself, "Then they went onto your mentality and personality."

Naruto dreaded to ask, "What's wrong with my personality?"

It wasn't Sarutobi who answered but the other legendary ninja in the room, "You're a hothead, you get riled up too quickly. A chuunin is supposed to always remain calm so that he could make the best decision to his team, with your hotheaded nature, anything easily riles you up and you'll be prone to making bad decisions that may result in the deaths of your team. A quality like that isn't looked for in leaders." Jiraiya said with a serious expression on his face for once, "You're still young, so you have the chance to grow with experience and also learn how to control your emotions. You should meditate once in a while, it helps."

Naruto nodded as he took in the advice and made a mental note to try to meditate...as boring as it sounds.

Sarutobi continued from where Jiraiya left off, "Also your gaps in your knowledge were pointed out. Your Academy grades weren't at all flattering to your level of knowledge. I know you may not be the sharpest knife in the set-" Jiraiya snorted in amusement at that statement which caused a tick mark to form of Naruto but immediately made steps to reign himself in, "A word of advice is to start visiting the library to make-up for the classes you missed in the Academy, due to various...reasons. I also took the liberty to include several books that you _will_ read in the scroll. They will help you greatly in your life as a shinobi."

Naruto took note of the seriousness in which he told Naruto about the books in the scroll as it felt more like an order rather than a suggestion. And since it was coming from one of the few people he actively liked and respected, if he was told to read those books, he was going to read the shit out of them.

"You should also go to the library after reading them." Jiraiya chimed in from the sidelines, "And if you don't know what the library is, its the place where stupid people go to stop being stupid. I'll draw you a map if you want." he finished with a wisecrack.

The tick marked came back to Naruto's head full force this time as Naruto turned to face his one-time sensei with a death glare. Noticing the look he was being given, Jiraiya repeated what he had said before, "Remember, you have to learn to control your temper gaki!" Naruto did just that by biting on his lip and as his eye twitched and turned back to face Sarutobi.

Sarutobi paused for a bit and let silence envelope the room just for a few moments as he smoked his pipe before speaking once more, "Also, by now I'm sure you realise that your training has to step up from what you were already doing. I've watched you train and its not enough for a chunin as you are now. Therefore, I've once again taken the liberty to include various training manuals in the scroll for you to read and follow. The rest of the contents of your scroll is your standard issue flak jacket, tanto and uniform."

Naruto nodded as he clutched on to the scroll like it was the most precious thing in the world. He had honestly taken all the advice from the Sandaime seriously and made a note to change himself for the better so he can prove to whatever detractors he had that he was good enough and mature enough to be a chunin and definitely Hokage in the future.

"I'll definitely prove those guys on the panel wrong! I better go get training then!" the blonde said as he turned around to leave the room in a hurry.

"Before you go Naruto-kun, I have something to tell you!" Naruto skidded to a halt to turn and cast a look at the Sandaime, "I don't know if you know this...but knowing his personality, I'm sure you aren't aware of it. You do know the secret to the Kage Bunshin Jutsu correct?"

Naruto blinked, showing his confusion at the matter, "...What secret?"

Jiraiya chuckled in the background as Sarutobi rubbed the bridge of his nose, "I thought so…" he muttered as he cursed Kakashi underneath his breath, "You see, the creator of the jutsu, one of my teachers, the Nidaime Hokage made the jutsu to be used for surveillance purposes." seeing the lost look on Naruto's face, he decided to simplify what he just said, "Basically, whatever a clone learns, upon its dispelled, it will be transferred back to the user."

Naruto scratched his head as he took in that information, "Okay…"

Jiraiya chuckled some more in the background, "I don't think he gets it sensei...he's quite the slow one." he said in a tone of amusement, "Basically gaki, you create one clone and train alongside it for one hour and then dispel it, you have essentially trained for two hours in the span of an hour."

Naruto's eyes widened at the possibilities of this as he understood what the Sandaime had been trying to say. Damn, he was slow if he didn't figure that out, "I believe you're the only person in the village who could make full use of this training method." Sarutobi said, "But please try not to abuse the method. If you create too many clones and dispel them after training, their culmilative stress will come back to you…"

"...And turn your brain into mush!" Jiraiya chimed in happily.

Naruto nodded, "Alright! Thanks jiji! I better go get myself acquainted with my new stuff and rank!" the blonde yelled as he ran out of the door, "Ha! The others are so going to be jealous! Me, a chunin before any of them!" the Kage-level ninjas heard the blonde exclaim in a buoyant mood.

(Naruto's Apartment)

Naruto stood in front of a mirror marvelling at his new attire. Well, he should have been marvelling at his new attire but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He had taken out the standard issue attire of Konoha ninjas and had tried it on, only to realise they were far too big for him.

And this was the small size. Dammit, when was he going to get his growth spurt? He was tired of being small.

Luckily for him, his flak jacket was adjustable and could fit his small frame. So he had then tried to wear it over his usual outfit and realised it made it difficult to move his arms around wearing both his flak jacket and orange jacket at the same time. And his fashion sense actually peeked its head for the first time as he noted that he looked absolutely horrible with that combination.

He solved this problem by removing his orange jacket, leaving him in his usual black, short-sleeved shirt underneath, but the combination of the flak jacket and the t-shirt didn't look 'cool' or 'awesome' to him.

He scratched his head at the conundrum he had found himself in, "I guess I'm going to have to go clothes shopping." he muttered as he walked over to his dresser and picked up Gama-chan, his frog wallet. He counted the bills inside, "I have enough money for some clothes if a shop doesn't try to rip me off…" he muttered as he walked towards his wardrobe before crouching down and pulling out a shoebox, "But its better to be safe." he finished saying as he opened the shoebox to reveal it had more than several stacks of ryo notes in bundles of 10,000.

Taking five bundles of the notes, he placed the shoebox back into his wardrobe and placed the notes into his wallet and put on his orange jacket before heading out of his apartment.

He immediately came rushing back in before bringing his hands together, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." he created a dozen clones before passing the chunin scroll to one of them, "Alright, split yourselves into groups. Some of you guys read the books jiji and the rest go through the chakra control we read about. And one of you start swinging that tanto around so we know how to use it at least!" he ordered before leaving his apartment once more after receiving a chorus of yeses from the clones.

XxX

Naruto wandered around the market district looking for any supply shop he can enter. He had forgotten he had barred himself from the majority of the shops due to pranks he had done in the past and was now rapidly going through his memory in a bid to find a shop that he hadn't pissed off in his youth, 'Pranked that place, pranked the hell out of that one, that one _didn't _even stand a chance...I'm sure the owner of that one would actively try to kill me...'

Naruto had gotten the majority of his tools by being a resourceful bastard. Whenever he trained with any kunai, shuriken or weapons, he made sure to clean after himself and every now and then would walk around the training grounds finding any leftover shuriken and kunai he could.

He had an entire closet full of weapons from that little habit of his, and thus he saved a lot of money by not having to constantly resupply himself with said weapons from shops that would most likely try to rip him off.

And although he would never admit it to anybody, some of the shops he had pranked in retribution of their treatment towards him would find some of their stock missing...if they looked hard enough.

As Naruto continued making his way through the district, ignoring the looks of scorn periodically cast his way, the blonde stopped in front of a plain, undescript shop. He rummaged through his memory to see whether he had done anything to it and got nothing in return. He shrugged as he decided to give it a chance.

XxX

Tenten yawned as she flipped through the weapons magazine in her hands as she sat behind the counter, feet up on said counter. Today was a particularly slow day for her family's weapon shop. She wasn't having a particularly good month as far as she was concerned.

She had gotten destroyed in the preliminary rounds by the Suna kunoichi. Hell, she had been the only one to able to touch or hit her opponent. Hell, those two kunoichi in the year below her that barely passed as kunoichis had been able to deal some damage, all she got was get sliced up and kicked out of contention.

She had then decided to spent the month interlude for the finals help her teammate Neji perfect one of his jutsus and train in general for the the finals and had expected him to go their and breeze his way through, with the only ones possibly challenging him being the Uchiha, the sand manipulating guy and the kunoichi who had destroyed her.

Things didn't work out as she had thought they would.

Instead, she had gone to watch him get beaten by the loud, obnoxious blonde who had been the dead last of the class under hers. He cut down his Jyuuken (Gentle Fist) and then proceeded to shrug off one of his best techniques and re-open his tenketsu after they were sealed off. He even had the energy to go around for a victory lap around the arena.

Really, where did he get the energy from? He looked like he was going to faint after knocking down Neji.

After that, she found herself trapped in a genjutsu...her! The girl who was mostly tasked into breaking the genjutsu cast around one of his teammates! That was embarrassing for her. She had then gone on to miss the entirety of the Konoha Crash.

After the invasion, she and Neji like the majority (All) of the genin had helped with the reconstruction effort, but things had slowed down and went as hectic as before now and genin could now be assigned missions but due to the grievous injuries inflicted on one of her teammates during the exams, her team was on sort of a hiatus at the moment, so here she sat, bored...reading a magazine.

Yeah...not one of her good months.

The bell to the store rang as it signified a potential customer, "Hello, welcome to-" she stopped when she saw who had entered the shop and immediately got to her feet and cast an accusing glare and finger at the person, "It's you!" she hissed.

Naruto jumped up in surprise at the hiss and had immediately thought that he had definitely pranked this shop before and was about to turn on his heel only to see the person pointing at him, "Wait, you're that Tenten girl that's in the same team as Neji and Bushy-brows!"

She nodded, "And you're the kid that beat Neji!" she said with an accusing tone.

Naruto blinked as he heard her tone. She made it sound as if he had committed some sort of capital crime, "Was I supposed to lose or something?" he asked with an edge to his voice. Just who was she to tell him what he should have done?

Tenten blinked at that before backing down and taking on an apologetic expression, "No...well it's just really surprising that you won. That's all. I didn't mean to be rude or anything."

"It's alright I guess. I don't really want to know what the odds were for me to win the match."

"Zero. Nought. Zilch."

He sweatdropped, "I said I didn't _want_ to know what the odds were for me winning!" he snapped at her with a tick mark on his head before controlling himself, "...But seriously, nothing? Not even a single odd of me having a chance in hell of winning?"

"Nop." She eagerly replied, "You were pretty much to go in there and get your ass kicked. Sort of like a starter to a meal, you were there to make the audience hungry for more."

A cloud of depression overcame the blonde, "...That's depressing to know no-one expected anything from me. Not even an underdog win."

Tenten laughed somewhat sheepishly at his mood, "It's alright. I'm sure you raised a few eyebrows during the fine and definitely surprised many when you won. You definitely surprised me." on a side note, she was quite impressed by the fact that the raincloud was having its own little thunderstorm going on.

Naruto immediately perked at hearing that, "Thanks! Surprising people is what I'm good at anyway." he looked around, "Do you guys sell shinobi wear?"

Tenten immediately appeared beside him leading him to a section in a part of the store, "Yes! Yes we do!" she answered rather eagerly as she dragged the blonde.

Naruto struggled to keep up, "Hey! Watch the arm woman!" he complained before finding himself released and was about to thank her from not ripping his arm off before finding a shirt thrown in his face. He removed the shirt and looked at it before looking back at Tenten with a quirked eyebrow, "What's this?"

"A shirt." came the taciturn reply, "I'm going to help you out in your shopping."

Naruto looked at her with a scrutinizing look, "I pegged you for a tomboy and figured shopping wouldn't be your thing."

Tenten controlled herself from assaulting the blonde behind her, "Shopping isn't my thing." she answered coolly, "Its just your outfit. I hate it. It's an obnoxious eyesore. How you've survived this long is a mystery to me."

This time, it was Naruto's turn to control himself so that he didn't go on a tirade about the awesome that was orange, "Thanks, but I think I'll be fine." the blonde said as he moved around the racks of clothes.

Tenten looked at him with a raised eyebrow before shrugging, "Sure, whatever you say. Whatever you pick can't be worse than what you're already wearing." she finished with a dismissive wave as she made her way back to the counter.

Naruto just felt like throttling her but let out several deep breaths, he was going to learn to calm down dammit! It wasn't befitting a chunin to have random outbursts on insults to his clothing.

The blonde grumbled as he disappeared into the changing room with several clothing items in his hands before coming back out, still in his orange jumpsuit. If people were so offended by his outfit, then he was going to surprise them when he wore it along with his new flak jacket.

He dumped his clothes onto the counter, "So how much?" he asked as he brought out his unique wallet.

"Aww~" Tenten cooed out at the sight of the wallet, "That's such a cute wallet." she pinched his cheek subconsciously, "Somewhat fits you."

Several tick marks formed on Naruto's head as he growled out his question, once more, "How much…?"

Trying and failing to stop her giggling, she tallied up the assortment of items in front of her, "43,500 ryo." she said amidst a light giggle.

Naruto's eyebrow ticked as he burrowed into his wallet before stopping when he noticed a weapons rack. He walked up to it and saw a tanto an averaged-sized tanto. He already had one standard issue tanto but his somewhat immature mind immediately imagined himself duel wielding two tantos instead of one.

The cool factor alone was enough to convince himself to grab it and buy it. Which he did. Now all he had to do was learn the basics of kenjutsu using two blades. How fun.

The bun-haired girl at the counter raised an eyebrow when Naruto came back with the tanto, "With that, its now 58,500 ryo. You do know how to use that right?" she asked. Her pride as a weapons user wouldn't let some rookie buy a weapon simply because he/she could look cool with it.

Naruto laughed sheepishly, "No." he answered truthfully, "But I do intend to learn how to though." he then realised something, "Wait, you use weapons right?" he asked the bun-haired girl who nodded, "Then do you know how to use it?"

She nodded again, "I'm not a master of any kind, but I'm pretty good with any weapon."

"Sweet!" the blonde exclaimed happily, "Think we could get together and you can teach me the basics?"

Tenten blinked as she thought about it. On one hand, she'll get to train with the guy that beat Neji, even if it was a fluke, it was one hell of a fluke and he had shown himself to be a surprisingly strong ninja, on the other hand, she didn't want to help train someone who wasn't serious about using weapons like her.

"You better be serious about this." She finally said with a serious gaze.

"I am!" the blonde answered vehemently, "I really am."

"Well, you're going to have to show it to me. Come find me sometime, I'll probably have some free time, but until then…" she drifted off as she disappeared into the back of the shop before coming back with a scroll, "Have a look and read of this. It's just a scroll with a basic kenjutsu style. It's great for a beginners since it allows you to have the knowledge to move on to other styles with some grounded skill. On the house of course."

'Great. Another thing to read.' He grimaced internally as he took the scroll. He flashed her a smile, "Thanks. Well I gotta go." he said as he packed up his newly acquired items and then left the shop.

XxX

(Next Day)

A knock on his door woke Naruto from his sleep as he raised his head from the table in front of him. He removed the piece of paper that was clinging onto his face as he raised his head from the table and wiped away some drool from his mouth. He had slept late last night after coming back from his impromptu shopping spree and had come back to join in the reading his clones had been doing and had subsequently slept...he looked at the clock on the wall, only four hours ago.

Lovely. Who knew he was so eager to learn after all this time? He was lucky that today was his off-day.

He ambled his way towards his door when another knock rang out and the blonde opened the door reveal Jiraiya just midway into knocking once more, "You look like you just woke up on the wrong side of the bed." the Sannin said as he observed the state of his apprentice. Funnily enough, Naruto wasn't aware he was his apprentice.

"I didn't sleep on any bed ero-sennin." Naruto remarked with a yawn, "So what do you want?"

Jiraiya grinned, "Congratulations gaki, you've got your first mission with me as a chunin!" he announced.

Naruto blinked before the excitement hit him, "Awesome! What is it? Is it something awesome!?"

"Yep! You're going to help me find someone!"

All excitement was lost, "...You can do that by yourself, I've got books to read and scrolls to learn from." the blonde said as he dismissed the man and walked off back into his apartment.

"If you come, I'll teach you a super-awesome powerful jutsu that makes the Chidori (Thousand Birds) looks like childs' play."

The Sannin grinned when he saw Naruto stop, "Give me a few minutes to get ready." and the Sannin did a mini-celebration to himself at hearing that. If it was this easy getting his mitts into him, then it was going to be easier than he thought into making the blonde into a true apprentice of his. He would teach the boy everything he knew..._everything_.

* * *

**Well, comment and review! Actually just review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. That goes to Kishimoto, the master of asspulls.**

* * *

(Road to Somewhere)

Jiraiya could honestly say he was surprised by the sudden change in Naruto. Although it had been only a day since the boys' promotion to chunin, it seemed as if he had taken everything that had been told to him and taken it to heart.

Right now, the blonde was behind him reading a book by probably (definitely) the most militaristic albeit highly gifted Hokage Konoha had ever come to know. A book about the Shinobi in general which also included tactics and strategy. Mind you, the book was supposed to be standard reading for any new chunin.

He then panned his head behind him to see ten clones of the blonde all doing various things. Four of them were reading more books, another two were reading from what looked like a ninjutsu scroll, he figured Sarutobi had given him those, two were seemingly looking constipated over a leaf inbetween their hands and the last two were seemingly going through hand seals, 'Trying to get rid of the stupid hands...' he surmised with one quick look. He also knew the pain of trying to get rid of the stupid hands.

He then turned towards the blonde himself, and had been pleasantly surprised when he had stepped out of his apartment all ready for action in his new flak jacket including the tanto. Gone was the obnoxious orange track suit and replaced with a much tamer attire consisting of a black, long sleeved shirt with two solid orange rings on his sleeves and dark blue pants with black sandals. Interestingly enough, not only did he have one tanto strapped on his lower back vertically, he had two.

He considered himself a dual wielder now did he?

"So…" the older man said in a testing manner, "Decided to get rid of the orange? Good choice. It becomes much easier getting girls when you're not trying to blind them."

Naruto sucked in his breath, "It wasn't that bad!" he breathed out rather harshly. Really, what was with people lately and dissing the track suit? He looked around rather demurely before speaking, "So...now that I've stopped wearing it, will Sakura-chan notice me?"

Jiraiya blinked in surprise as he looked down at Naruto. Aww, did the little blonde hothead have girl problems and was he asking good old uncle Jiraiya for advice? It seemed like it, and the best advice to give him was the cold hard truth, "Not a chance in hell."

Naruto face faulted at that before getting up and rushing back to Jiraiya's side, "Why!?" he questioned rather passionately, "You said that by getting rid of the track suit, girls would be able to nice me!"

Jiraiya flicked him on the head eliciting a slight cry of pain, "I said that it would be easier getting girls, not them noticing you." a thoughtful expression came up, "Well actually, it could lead them noticing you but its a completely different thing with that crush of yours. She seems entirely dedicated to the Uchiha, maybe even love him from what I've observed. No matter what you do, she's never going to like you kiddo. Just get over it and move on."

He flashed a beaming smile at Naruto, "And Jiraiya-sama of the Sannin, the number one ladies man in the world will be more than willing to give you advice to make all the girls swoon under your sheer presence."

Naruto stared blankly at the lecher in front of him, "No thanks." he deadpanned, "If I took any advice from you, I'll probably end up a pervert." he said as he returned back to reading his book. He then looked up from it, "Say...you taught the Yondaime Hokage right?" Jiraiya nodded, "Am I as good as him?"

"Nop." the Sannin stated quickly, "The difference between the two of you is as big as heaven and earth...maybe bigger." He reworded after a while, "People say I taught him, but the only thing I actively taught him were the beginnings of fuuinjutsu (Sealing Arts) and some ninjutsu, but the rest of the time, he taught himself everything he knew."

A small smile came onto the legendary ninjas face as he remembered teaching his yellow-headed student, "Whenever he was stuck on something, I would just give him a tip and he'd use that tip to get over his hurdle in a heartbeat."

Naruto looked at Jiraiya dryly, "All I asked was whether I was a better student than the Yondaime. You didn't have to go on an explanation of how infinitely superior he was compared to me."

"I didn't say that." Jiraiya remarked with amusement in his voice, "All I stated was that...no matter what you do, just remember, the Yondaime could do anything you can do a hundred times better than you."

"...Shut up ero-sennin."

XxX

Naruto and Jiraiya had arrived in a town not that far away from Konoha and had booked a hotel for the night. Upon arriving, both master and student had become awestruck by a beauty that had smiled at them, and much to Naruto's ire and subsequent shame, Jiraiya had gone off with her leaving Naruto alone.

Along and angry since he wanted to hang around with the pretty lady to. Which brought him the shame part of his current mood. He considered himself not a pervert, but from what he was feeling, he might as well be a pervert.

"Stupid ero-sennin running off with some woman…" the blonde grumbled which was chorused by several other clones in the room that were busy reading or working among many other things, whilst he read a book ero-sennin had given him to read.

After hearing that Jiraiya had only personally taught the Yondaime Hokage the beginnings of fuuinjutsu, Naruto had asked for Jiraiya to teach him too. Jiraiya had acquised to the demand and Naruto had promptly begun to curse himself for it.

Now he understood why Jiraiya said sealing was something of an obscure art. It was complicated as fuck. Even the beginner level was difficult to grasp as he had to learn the complex theory to the art, then from what he skimmed in the latter pages, the standard seal formula and matrixes he also will have to memorise looked like completely and utterly bitchy to do.

The blonde raised his head from the book that was currently confusing the shit out of him to look at his door. He had been progressively feeling something powerful heading his way and had discounted it before looking up once more when the presences had stopped in front of his door.

That's when he heard the door knock.

Now Naruto was conflicted. He somehow felt powerful presences on the other side of his door and he didn't particularly feel as if they were there to sell him some girl scout cookies and the likes.

Thinking quickly, the blonde quietly ordered his clones to drop whatever they were doing and go find Jiraiya. If they were as powerful as he felt, he doubted fighting against them was a good thing. He might have a lot of bluster, but he knew very well that he lacked in a lot of areas, which he was currently aiming to rectify.

He made his way to the door and opened it and was met with two towering figures who looked down on him, 'Sasuke?' the blonde thought in surprise when he saw the dark haired one of the duo before seeing that he might have looked like Sasuke, but he was entirely different to him such as the fact the eyes were much more apathetic than Sasuke's and the scratched out headband on his head.

"Huh…" the taller of the two, a blue skinned man who looked much like a shark snorted in amusement, "Who knew the Kyuubi brat was such a runt?"

Naruto stiffened at that, 'Who are these guys? How do they know about the Kyuubi?'

"Naruto-kun…" the one who resembled Sasuke spoke in a calm and even manner, "We would like for you to come with us."

He continued looking down at Naruto with an apathetic gaze that didn't convey whatever he was thinking, "Calm out of the room."

And Naruto did as he was asked as he slowly stepped out of his room. He somehow knew that if he tried anything, these two would destroy him before he knew what hit him. That was how big the gap between them and him. He just knew it, and that's why he complied with the order, although he did feel as if something else was compelling him, 'This guy isn't normal...' he thought as his feet took a small step forward.

The other shark-like man grinned deviously at Naruto, "Itachi-san, we don't need him running around. Why don't I cut of a leg?"

A leg? No way. He liked having all of his limbs connected to his body. He didn't want to lose anything like a limb. He wouldn't be able to become Hokage missing a leg. Actually, he doubted that if he went with them, he would never ever have the chance to become Hokage as he was sure he would be of the dead type.

Naruto was petrified in fear as the shark man stared down at him with his beady eyed gaze. These guys were far more dangerous than Gaara ever was. He really doubted a couple thousand of clones would actually be of any help here.

"Well…" the man said as he grasped the handle of his sword and started drawing it.

Seeing the look and grin he was being given, and counting on the age of tradition that when in dire straights, you pray like you've never prayed before for any sort of miracle to occur. Naruto did that as he prayed to Kami herself for her divine intervention. He neither wanted to die, lose a leg or go with them.

"Uchiha Itachi!"

Naruto's eyes trained towards behind the duo to see Sasuke, eyes firmly fixed on the smaller of the duo, Itachi, "You've told me to live my life with hatred in order to kill you. Well that day has come!"

Now Naruto wasn't one to wish misfortune onto someone that didn't deserve it, such as his teammate, at this very moment, Naruto couldn't find himself to care as Sasuke's arrival turned the attention of the two man in front of him from himself, to that of Sasuke.

Now he knew there was no 'I' in team, but today? Today he couldn't give the slightest damn as he was more than willing to spell the word with an 'I'. Someone had to take one for the team, and it seemed like today was Sasuke's turn.

XxX

Truthfully, after seeing the state Sasuke was left in by his older brother, Naruto had wanted to do nothing more than go after them and make them, especially Uchiha Itachi pay for what he did to Sasuke.

Luckily for him, Jiraiya had been there to stop him from going on ahead and committing what was tantamount suicide. Of course, Jiraiya had to exert a bit of force to prove his point to Naruto, and it was then the blonde learned why the two ninjas that had come after them had decided to split the older ninja of the pair apart.

Jiraiya, even if he acted like a complete and utter goof, was someone you would only want to fight when you were damn sure you had a chance to win.

"Gaki, come over here!"

Naruto blinked before heeding the call and made his way towards where Jiraiya was currently in conversation with Gai who had chased after Sasuke when he had left the village to chase after Naruto and company.

His attention was turned to the unmoving and comatose Sasuke who was being piggy backed by the eccentric taijutsu specialist. Apparently, Sasuke wasn't the only victim to the strange jutsu Itachi used on him as Kakashi was also in a similar state and the only way for them to be revived was with the help of someone called Tsunade.

The name rang a bell, but for the life of him, the blonde jinchuuriki couldn't remember a single detail, "Don't worry Bushy-brows sensei, we'll find this woman and bring her back!"

Gai gave the young boy a smile, "Yosh! You've definitely got guts Naruto-kun! Here I'm giving you this; it's the reason why Lee is so strong…"

Jiraiya started paling at the thought of what the 'gift' was as Naruto started bouncing on the balls of his feet at thinking what this gift was, "Eh? What? What?"

"This!" Gai finally declared as he fished out a green spandex body suit just like his.

Naruto and Jiraiya were stunned into silence as Gai went on to give the specifics about the bodysuit like he was pitching a sale. Not wanting to be rude after he had come all this way to warn them about Akatsuki and pick-up Sasuke, the blonde accepted the gift and waved as Gai and Sasuke disappeared into the distance.

Jiraiya panned his eyes to Naruto who was inspecting the bodysuit with close scrutiny, "...You're not going to wear that are you?"

"Why? Doesn't it fit me…?"

"Look at the thing you're holding. It's even worse than that tracksuit you wore."

Naruto turned his eyes back to his 'gift', "...Well, I guess you might have a point." he admitted as he placed it into his pack, "So where do we go now?"

Jiraiya smiled as he walked off in the opposite direction that Gai had walked off, "Your job is just to follow me and not ask any questions why I regale you with my infinite, manly wisdom."

Naruto sweat dropped as he quickly ran up to the man to catch up, "Okay then…" he said in a rather flat tone. They walked in silence for more than a dozen moments before they found themselves on a highway.

Naruto replayed his encounter with Sasuke's older brother and him declaring that they're after him for what he held inside him, "Ero-sennin…" he said in a quiet tone forcing Jiraiya to look at him with a raised eyebrow, "Who were those guys? And why are they after me?"

"I was wondering when you were going to ask me about that." Jiraiya said with a tone of amusement before putting on something of a serious countenance, "They're not after you per se, more along the lines of what's inside you."

Naruto took on a grave expression, "The Kyuubi…"

Jiraiya nodded, "The two men we met are part of a group composed of missing-nin. They call themselves Akatsuki and they just don't want the Kyuubi, my sources tell me they're after every other bijuu."

Naruto snapped his head a that. He knew they were more bijuus out there and other people like the most recent and other fellow jinchuuriki he met, Gaara.

Jiraiya continued to explain, "These guys will keep tryin' to get to ya. It's a destiny you'll have to face. But when that does happen, I'll be there to protect you so don't-"

He was cut off by Naruto, "And that's another reason for me to get stronger! No way I'm letting a bunch of criminals get their hands on the Kyuubi. The Yondaime entrusted me with it to protect Konoha and that's what I'm going to do."

"Huh…" Jiraiya let out with a plain expression, "I wasn't expecting that reaction in the slightest. I was expecting more of a nervous breakdown and the likes."

Naruto stared dryly at Jiraiya, "You don't believe in me that much do you?"

"I do believe in you…" Naruto let a smile grace his lips, "Just not that much." and the smile disappeared and was replaced by an angry glare directed towards a laughing Jiraiya.

"Whatever! Let's just find this woman and get her to heal Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei, then we can start the real training!" the blonde said in a huff.

"Haven't you been training already?" Jiraiya asked before looking around, "Actually, I don't see any clones around doing random things."

Naruto blinked, "Oh yeah! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he created several clones before digging into his pack, "You know the deal!" the blonde declared as he threw several training materials at the clones.

XxX

Eventually, the two odd duo of Konoha ninjas found themselves at a town that was in the midst of hosting a festival. Jiraiya suggested that they take the time to relax here before they began the real training and Naruto was more than eager to go along with that request. This was his first time seeing such a festival and he wanted to enjoy it to the max.

Eventually, after separating with the perverted sannin who had gone off to acquire information, Naruto started kicking himself as he had given the man his wallet and had only taken a small amount of money for himself.

"I hate you so much ero-sennin." Naruto muttered as he walked through the town whilst enjoying a stick of meat he had bought from a food stand.

At least he had enough money on his persons to take part in the festival games that were being held. And took part he did, for he might as well have been cheating since none of the games were designed to be played by ninja and thus, Naruto constantly won game after game.

And he had to admit, he was enjoying himself a lot. It also didn't hurt that he wasn't being turned away from stalls and he was sure he had heard some girls call him cute.

So he _was_ attractive to the opposite sex. Then why did no girl in Konoha show any interest in him? He was pretty sure Shikamaru, Shikamaru of all people had been confessed to back in the Academy.

Then he answered his question with a rather depressing answer; he was Uzumaki Naruto, the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko. No girl in the village would be crazy enough to actually go for him, even if they didn't know what he held. He was pretty sure the attitude of the adults towards him had been passed on somewhat.

Eventually, after spending all the money he had on his persons, Naruto decided to go look for his travelling companion. He didn't have to look for long before hearing his rather distinctive laughter to find him in a hostess bar. He entered to find the legendary ninja with beverage on the table and his arms around two pretty girls who were sat beside him.

This was gathering information?

"Eh?" Jiraiya let out when he saw his young apprentice, "Naruto! Come over here and take a load off!"

Controlling himself from bursting out into outrage over the fact that Jiraiya had just wasted his money and had the gall enough to appear in front of him after having given him this lecture about the 'Three Vices of Shinobi' Naruto walked his way towards the table and took a seat to the woman on the left of Jiraiya, "So Jiraiya-sama, whose the the cutie here with you?" she asked as she pinched his cheek and got in close proximity to his face.

The blonde blushed indefinitely. He wasn't very well used to female interaction, the only one he knew off well enough was one that mostly included him being battered into the ground by all females...except Hinata, he couldn't remember a single moment where Hinata hit her for doing something other girls would have hit him for.

She always turned red and fainted...weird girl.

"C-Cute!?" he spluttered out with a red face.

The woman giggled at his reaction, "Aww~ That's so cute!" she caressed his cheeks, specifically his whisker marks, "And these are even cuter! They make him look all cuddly!"

The girl continued to stroke his whisker marks which resulted in Naruto purring. This caused Jiraiya to look at him with a blank look, "Did you just...purr?" he asked.

Red now from embarrassment and the very pretty girl stroking his cheeks the blonde answered, "...No?"

The cause of the entire incident wasn't having that answer though as she immediately embraced Naruto in a hug, smothering his face into her chest, "That was so cute!" she yelled out as she continued to smother him deeper into her chest.

This was all Naruto could handle as his face turned a new shade of red before steam might as well have started emitting from his ears, blood started seeping from his nose before ultimately passing out.

Jiraiya looked at the unmoving form of Naruto with a blank look, "Dammit gaki! Way to go to ruin the fun. Seems like I'll have to teach your more than combat skills." he grumbled quietly.

XxX

(Next Morning)

Naruto awoke the next morning staring at the ceiling of some random room. The blonde yawned as he got himself out of his bed wondering how he had got that as he remembered being with Jiraiya in the tavern before his face turned red when he remembered what had happened in said bar.

"Awake are we?"

Naruto turned to look at Jiraiya who was looking at him with something of a grave expression which caused the blonde to wonder what was wrong for him to have such a serious expression, "What? What happened?"

"Oh nothing. But first…" he pointed below Naruto's waist, "Do you mind doing something about that? I don't play for that team."

Naruto quirked an eyebrow in confusion before looking down and blushed when he saw the rather noticeable bulge in his pants, "W-What the hell!?" he cried out as he dived back underneath his covers, "Why the hell is it like that!?"

"What?" was all Jiraiya could let out as he looked at the covered form of Naruto, "You do know what a 'morning wood' is right?"

Naruto peeked his head from underneath the cover, "A morning what now?"

Jiraiya could only just stare at Naruto with a look that didn't convey the thoughts he was thinking. Even though it was vastly different from the Academy of his time, wasn't the Academy supposed to cover Sex Ed sometime during the students five year stay there nowadays?

'Unless they did cover it and he had gone off and skipped the classes or kicked out of them.' Jiraiya mused before his mind started thinking, 'But where did he learn the female anatomy for his Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Jutsu)? I doubt he went to peek on girls.'

"Naruto…" Jiraiya began, "How did you come up with your Oiroke no Jutsu?"

Naruto blinked at the question, what did his anti-pervert jutsu have anything to do with this morning thingy Jiraiya mentioned? Deciding to humour the man, Naruto shrugged as he answered, "I got the idea of it when I was walking around and noticed some of the older men always ogled at some of the female kunoichi or civilians. After thinking of how I can use this to my advantage I came up with it…" he paused for breath, "But I had to do a lot of research to see what type of girl would work."

Jiraiya's eyes sparkled, "And this research…" he said in a testing manner as if he was some sort of scholar, "How was this gained?"

Naruto blushed as he looked away, "...Adult magazines…" he mumbled out his answer, "But I'm not a pervert! I'm definitely not!"

Jiraiya just grinned as if he knew an answer that Naruto didn't know, "And that's how you go to sleep? Kid...you're already on your way to join us. But first Kanashibari no Jutsu (Temporary Paralysis Jutsu)!"

Naruto found himself frozen and unable to move a single limb of his body. He couldn't even speak or question why Jiraiya was giggling like a mad man whilst tying him up, "Alright! Gaki, it has come to my knowledge that you lack knowledge in a serious part of the Shinobi Curricular that can make the difference between life and death…" Jiraiya sat down as he took out a small orange book that Naruto immediately recognised but couldn't voice his distaste at it, "And being your Master and since I care about your livelihood, I've taken it upon myself to rectify this mistake to the core! I shall part you with all my worldly knowledge on the subject!" he exclaimed in a passionate manner.

And thus Naruto was subjected to the most explicit and most detailed 'Birds and the bees' talk ever known to man. Hell, when Jiraiya was done with that part of his talk, he went on to teach Naruto in the art of talking with women, even though the blonde was spotting a shade of red that would have made Hinata jealous and blood was freely flowing from his nose.

XxX

The two Konoha ninjas could be found walking on the road onto their next destination. Naruto was somewhat out of it after being subjected to the birds and the bees talk courtesy of Jiraiya that had thoroughly and utterly traumatised him for life.

And even if that was bad enough, the blonde had been ashamed with himself as he realised he had...liked the talk Jiraiya had given him. But he wasn't a pervert! He was a healthy, young and growing male! Yeah! That was right! It was only natural that he showed an interest in the opposite sex right without making him a pervert right?

Jiraiya merely watched Naruto have a crisis of identity with a face full of mirth before deciding to get down to business, "Oi gaki! Catch!" he said as he threw a water balloon at Naruto.

After juggling the water balloon in his hands due to the fact it had suddenly been thrown at him, the blonde looked at Jiraiya with a quizzical expression, "It's not that hot ero-sennin. Aren't you a little bit too old to be playing with water balloons?"

Jiraiya ignored the wise-crack as he brought out a water balloon for himself, "The jutsu I said I'll teach you has three steps to it. The first step is to pop the balloon like so." he finished as the balloon suddenly popped in his hands.

Naruto looked at the balloon in his hand, "So does this jutsu have a name?" he said as he started concentrating on the balloon.

"It's called the Rasengan." Jiraiya answered as the blonde stopped concentrating on the ball in front of him when he started hearing a swirling sound originating from Jiraiya's hand to see a rapidly spinning blue ball of energy, "It's a jutsu invented by the Yondaime. Your hero."

At that, Naruto's eyes widened, "Seriously?" he breathed out, "This jutsu was invented by the Yondaime!?" Jiraiya nodded, "I am so learning this! So what do I do?"

The older man let the jutsu fade, "Like I said, the first step is to make the balloon pop by spinning the water around-."

He was interrupted when he heard a pop and looked at Naruto to see him shaking his drenched hand in a bid to dry it. He calmly passed another water balloon to him, "Do that again."

Naruto shrugged and did as he was asked and after concentrating on the balloon for several seconds, the balloon popped. Jiraiya nodded as if he just understood what happened, "How the hell did you do that? You shouldn't have got that so quickly!"

"When you first used that balloon to demonstrate, I heard a swishing sound from inside it as if the water was spinning inside." he answered as if it was the simplest question in the world, "And then you showed me the real thing and I saw how it formed with the wisps of chakra spinning around, so I figured I had to spin the water with my chakra. It's tougher than I thought."

Jiraiya looked at Naruto with an inquisitive gaze, "Are you _sure_ you're supposed to be an idiot?" he asked, "Cause that explanation seems best suited coming from someone who didn't come dead last in the Academy."

A tick mark formed on Naruto's head, "I may be slow...but if there's one thing I pride myself on is that I can be observant if I want to!" his observation skills were refined due to his constant shenanigans he got up to in his youth and whenever he went scavenging for more items in the training grounds. It also helped to be observant to see whether shopkeepers were trying to rip you off on their goods by looking at their facial expressions.

He wasn't a master at it, but he could damn well tell if someone was lying to him if they weren't that skilled in hiding or suppressing their emotions.

"Huh...you learn something new everyday." Jiraiya muttered as he passed a rubber ball to Naruto, "Alright, you have to burst that with your chakra. Same principle as the water balloon but you have to use your chakra instead. It's much more difficult. Have fun."

Naruto took the rubber ball and tried to burst by spinning his chakra in it and got nothing for his troubles, "...This is going to be tough." he muttered as he concentrated on the rubber ball.

Realising he was probably going to be stuck on this for the foreseeable future, the blonde created several clones which Jiraiya noticed, "Hey! No clones! Do it yourself!"

"I was planning on doing that anyway ero-sennin!" the blonde retorted, "These guys are just going to be doing the usual training that I've been doing ever since we started this little search for your friend."

Jiraiya blinked, "Oh, is that so?" he let out dumbly, "If that's the case, create five more clones, I might as well get them to work on a jutsu that is something of a necessity for all chunin-rank and above ninja."

Naruto did quickly as he was asked and created five clones, the clones showing the excitement they felt at the prospect of learning another jutsu, "Alright gaki, the name of this jutsu is the Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Jutsu) and it's relatively simple enough to do since it only requires one seal and if you get proficient enough in it, you can use it without a seal and in a fight as a means to quickly move to one location." he said as he began explaining the theory of the jutsu to the clones who nodded in understanding and tried to use the jutsu.

As his clones tried their hands on the jutsu just taught to them, Naruto continued concentrating on the rubber ball, 'Burst damn you! Burst!' he mentally commanded the ball as he poured chakra into it only getting it to expand a bit, "Dammit…"

(Four Days Later - On the Road)

BLAM!

Jiraiya looked at Naruto with something akin to shock as he watched the rubber ball that was in his apprentices hand burst into pieces, "How?" he breathed out in shock.

Naruto shrugged, "I only noticed it a few days ago, but the ball only expanded when I forced chakra into it. Which got me thinking, since air is different than water, I probably had to use more chakra to rotate it to make the ball burst!" he finished with a grin and a thumbs up.

Jiraiya nodded, "Congratulations kid, you managed to get the second step down. The point of that exercise was to make sure you put enough power into the rotation and now for the third step!" he said as he threw a balloon towards Naruto, "Combine steps one and two without bursting the balloon. Good luck with that." he finished with a grin as the balloon burst when Naruto tried it.

"Dammit…" the blonde muttered as he grabbed the pack of balloons and continued on his journey to master this jutsu, "I will get this jutsu even if it kills me." he declared with finality.

XxX

"What happened here?"

Jiraiya and Naruto looked at the site that used to be the place where the famous castle of Tanzaku Gai stood now only a giant pile of rubble. Naruto walked into the rubble looking around for the cause of the destruction although he expected to not find any whilst Jiraiya had already figured out who had caused the destruction due to the holes in the nearby walls.

Jiraiya jerked Naruto by the blonde's collar, "Come kid, we're close. We're so very close."

Not close enough apparently as they had searched for the entire day and had yet to find the woman before stopping at a tavern with intent to get food first then find a hotel. Jiraiya stopped though when they entered it, "Tsunade?"

A blonde woman with a rather ample bust with a purple diamond mark on her forehead looked up in shock, "Jiraiya? What are you doing here?"

Naruto looked at the woman with a look of disbelief, 'That's the person we're looking for...is she really 50 years old?' he thought as the woman looked closer to being in her twenties than her fifties.

Jiraiya and Naruto walked over to her table where there was a black haired woman holding a small pig, "Well, we just stopped here to get a bite to eat. Imagine running into you here of all places."

Tsunade shook her head in wry amusement, "What is it with today?" she muttered to herself, "I keep meeting old faces left and right."

Jiraiya suddenly took on a serious expression, "So Orochimaru was here after all. What did he want?"

Tsunade took a moment to cast a glare towards the woman beside her, "Nothing much. Just a greeting." Jiraiya didn't seem to buy that for even a second, "And now you...what do you want?"

Naruto glanced towards Jiraiya; in hindsight he didn't know the initial reason why Jiraiya had taken him to find his teammate. All he knew now was that she was needed to help heal Kakashi and Sasuke and that was only recently.

Jiraiya leaned in on the table, "To tell you the truth, sensei has recalled you back to Konoha." he said with an utmost seriousness to his voice. He wasn't joking around on this one.

The surprise on Tsunade's face was visible to all who could see it, and you didn't need to be trained in reading emotions to even see it. She wasn't the only one to show surprise as the dark haired woman besides her was equally shocked.

"Why?" Tsunade finally managed to ask.

Jiraiya seemed to snort at the answer, "You should be smart enough to venture a guess why Tsunade. Sensei isn't getting younger and if it wasn't to the gaki here…" he said as he indicated towards Naruto, "Messing around with things, sensei would have been one of the casualties of the war. You've been recalled and he decided to make you his successor."

Naruto nearly spit out the food he was eating at hearing that. The old man was retiring and he was only finding this out now? Why didn't he tell him before? This was big news dammit! And he deserved to know about this stuff!

Jiraiya seemed to relax somewhat, "You and I know very well much know that the two generations after us were hurt badly due to the Kyuubi attack. Right now, the only one with potential to be Hokage would be Kakashi and he just isn't good enough yet. Sensei knows that if the Yondaime had still been alive, the next Hokage would have come from my apprentice's generation, but he's too old to hang onto the hat for that long."

Naruto was awed to think that the higher-ups of Konoha thought that if the Yondaime was still alive, the next Hokage would have come from his generation, completely bypassing Kakashi's generation. Did that mean his generation had more potential than the previous one?

He decided not to think into it too much. His over-active mind will probably end up with some sort of unfeasible scenario ending up with him as Hokage somehow.

It was then that Tsunade decided to notice Naruto, "And? Who's this shrimp?" she asked as if she had just noticed his presence for the first time.

...Which didn't cut it with Naruto as he looked up from his meal, "Uzumaki Naruto, remember it well old hag, cause its the name of the guy that's going to be Hokage." the blonde introduced himself with a bit of bite to it. Even now, he was still sensitive about his height. He had to ask Jiraiya how he got so tall. Maybe there was a trick to it.

A tick mark formed on Tsunade's head as she sent a drunken glare at Naruto, "What did you just say you blonde-haired shrimp!?" she demanded to know, either wise, heads were going to roll. Not like she wasn't going to let heads roll even after hearing what he had just said.

Jiraiya immediately cut in, in the hopes of not losing an apprentice so soon after getting one, "He's Naruto. My new apprentice. As you can see, he's a fiery one." the blonde noted the looks of recognition that flashed across Tsunade's face as well as a look of pity on the other woman's face, "But back to business, what's your answer Tsunade? Will you come back to Konoha?"

A tense silence filled the table as Tsunade seemingly considered the offer, but her face was too neutral for Naruto to gain any sort of inkling or information on whether she was going to take the job or not. So he turned his attention towards the dark haired woman who was somewhat easier to read as he could pick up the looks of worry, fear and confusion? Apparently, the woman was confused about something.

Tsunade after a while picked up her saucer and drank from it before placing it back on the table, "Impossible. I refuse."

Naruto frowned at that, from what he understood, didn't she just ignore an order from a superior? Sure, he had his bouts of insubordination, but those were minor things such as complaining about menial tasks he had to do on D-rank missions. Actually, now that he thought about it, why hadn't he been given disciplinary action for those infractions?

He had read the entirety of the Konoha Shinobi Regulations which had been written by the Nidaime Hokage at the finding of the village and he remembered one of those regulations being that all forms of insubordination have to be punished, no matter how minor. If something like that was just allowed to go on without being punished, he definitely knew it would have a detrimental effect to the whole of the shinobi forces of Konoha.

"Why?" Naruto asked after a while, "Aren't you just blatantly ignoring orders from a superior?"

Jiraiya looked at Naruto with wide-eyes. Now that was something he didn't expect to hear from Naruto, the blonde talking about a serious matter due to the fact the blonde himself had a habit of being insubordinate every now and then from what he read in his file.

Tsunade looked at the blonde with something of a shocked look before deciding to answer, "I wouldn't return for the job of a fool." she said with a derisive tone.

'Uh oh...' Jiraiya thought when he heard Tsunade say that.

That hit a chord with Naruto as he respected the Hokages immensely amongst many things and he wouldn't stand for someone, someone like her with a heritage that she possessed to be derisive towards them, especially since he aspired to be one himself, "What do you mean by that?" he asked with a frosty countenance.

'Should I stop this before I have to scrape the gaki from the ground?' Jiraiya thought from his place on the table, 'Nah...I'll see how it turns out.'

Tsunade casually took a sip of her saucer as she ignored the tone of Naruto, she seemed to not register him in the slightest, "I mean, the Hokage's position requires one to gamble with their life." she said as she finally met Naruto's glare with her own, "And only fool's gamble with their lives so recklessly like my Grandfather, Granduncle and the Yondaime. Look at them, they died all trying to bring peace and died before they could reach their dreams, just like all the other losers." She took another sip of sake, "Even now, Sarutobi-sensei is risking his life when he should have retired long ago. The fool."

And that was enough for Naruto as he stood up and pointed at her, "Alright hag! You, me, outside, now!" he challenged as he pointed towards the door fully ignoring the ire the woman was directing towards him, "I don't care whether you've gone senile or not, but it's about time somebody kicked your shrivelled up ass."

And that was enough for the female sannin as she flipped over the table in anger, "Who do you think you are, you brat!?"

"What? Are you going deaf as well as senile?" Naruto wise-cracked. He pointed at himself, "Now listen well _baa-chan_, the name's Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konoha. And I'm about to roally kick your ass." he finished and turned towards the door.

With several tick marks on her persons, Tsunade stomped her way towards the door after Naruto, intent on making him nothing more than a smudge on the ground. Jiraiya groaned as he stood up, "I admit, I enjoyed that little verbal spat." he looked at the worried looking dark haired woman, "Come on Shizune, somebody has to be there to wipe his remain's off whatever surface he's pasted into."

XxX

Tsunade stood in the street staring straight at Naruto before the ridiculousness of the situation hit her, "I can't believe this...me, one of the Densetsu no Sannin (Legendary Three Ninja) is in a street fight with a brat…" she muttered with a look of amused disbelief, "I don't even have to be serious about this."

She looked at Naruto as she raised a single finger, "One finger. That's all I need to defeat you."

Naruto stood facing her with his game face on, 'She's looking down on me...' Well why wouldn't she? She was a legendary ninja in the same group with the likes of Jiraiya and Orochimaru and then there was him, a newly promoted chunin of no noticeable skill apart from his stamina and large chakra reserves...yeah, she had every right to look down on him.

The blonde pulled out a fistful of shuriken as he smirked when he realised something, she might have been a ninja of legendary status, but that meant nothing if she hadn't been keeping herself in shape over the years.

He was really hoping she hadn't been keeping herself in shape. If so, he was screwed. The blonde threw the shuriken at her and clapped his hands together "Futon: Reppushou (Wind Release: Gale Palm)!" a compressed gale of wind coming from Naruto's clapped hands burst forward and hit the flying shuriken increasing their speed.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at that, it wasn't bad...but it seemed as if his mastery over his element was still in the beginner stages judging by the speed of the wind coming towards her. She easily avoided the linear attack by smashing her finger into the ground to raise up a pillar of earth to block the wind and shurikens.

"What?" Naruto let out when he saw what she had just done, "Okay then...do not get hit by her or I'm dead if she can do that with one finger." he muttered before finding himself having to dodge earth projectiles coming from the boulder as Tsunade was leisurely poking the makeshift earth shield to create small, fast moving projectiles towards Naruto.

Naruto moved out of the line of fire the projectiles before deciding to try out his luck in close range but preemptively made several clones to help him in the ensuing fist fight as he rushed her.

"Oh boy...bad move Naruto…" Jiraiya muttered. Tsunade had been the better of the group when it came to taijutsu.

Tsunade had also made the same observation as she prepared herself when she saw the clones coming towards her only to blink in surprise when Naruto and his clones scattered around the street, never staying in one place as they just buzzed around the area.

She kept her eyes on all possible threats and had ended up blocking several pre-emptive strikes, all with one finger and had managed to dispel three of them with the same finger. She was sure living up to her boast.

The sounds of swirling turned her attention to her left side where she saw Naruto emerge from an alley with a blue ball in his hand that she recognised very much. She immediately jabbed her finger into the ground to create a fissure that caused the blonde to topple over and force his attack to hit the ground, creating a small crater.

Tsunade turned with a look of fury towards Jiraiya, "Jiraiya! What the hell are you thinking, teaching a kid like that, that jutsu?"

Jiraiya was about to answer but was stopped when he saw the ground in front of Tsunade burst outwards with Naruto appearing from it, just like he did in his match against Neji.

Hey, if it ain't broke, it didn't need to be replaced.

Tsunade barely managed to step backwards to avoid the surprise attack that could have caught her chin, "Damn!" she heard Naruto curse, "I thought I had the hag for a second then…" he finished before looking at his hand, "What the hell is this?" he asked as he removed a long piece of cloth that had gotten stuck to his bracer.

Tsunade looked at the familiar looking cloth before feeling a draft around her chest area and looked down to see her kimono/blouse open and fluttering freely in the breeze.

Shizune looked absolutely mortified at seeing her master in all of her busty glory and was only happy people had vacated the street long after seeing the two blondes face-off against each other.

Naruto was surprised by Jiraiya when he suddenly appeared in front of him shaking his hands with tears streaming from his eyes, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Naruto! Now I definitely know I made the right decision in making you my apprentice! How I've longed to see that sight once more!"

Naruto blinked in confusion as he looked at his sensei, "What are you talking about...oh." the blonde let out when he saw the reason for Jiraiya's current state as he saw Tsunade in all of her busty glory. Damn, those were seriously big, did she not have back problems carrying those around. And they looked absolutely perky too.

Seeing the sight in front of him, Naruto couldn't help but comment, "Wow...I am at a loss of words...bravo, just bravo."

With a red face full of anger, she clutched her blouse shut and rushed towards Naruto at a speed he could barely follow before feeling like he had been hit by some sort of runaway locomotive and was sent flying into the nearest wall.

Shizune and Jiraiya looked on in shock at the sight and where about to rush to the boys aid only for their surprise to see him emerge from the rubble...although extremely blood with broken bones if the weird angle his arm was in was an indication.

Naruto pointed with his good arm towards Tsunade and gave her a bloody, toothy grin, "I win. You used more than one finger. Back to Konoha with you old hag."

Tsunade ignored the medic in her to go heal the blonde as she sneered, still angry at what he had, albeit, unintentionally done, "Why? Why would I go back there? I already said I'm not going. That place has taken too much from me. It isn't getting my life too." She turned to leave, "Shizune! Come on, we're leaving."

Jiraiya appeared in front of her path to leave, "Tsunade, like I said already, Sarutobi-sensei wants you to be Hokage. Now that we've found you, we can't just let you vanish off again. We'll stay for as long as you agree."

Tsunade scoffed as she turned away from him. She then saw the spiral marking from the Rasengan before smirking, "Alright then...let's make a wager." That got Jiraiya's interest as he raised an eyebrow, "If the brat can master the Rasengan in a week's time, I'll give you the necklace I'm wearing and I'll come back to Konoha. If you lose, you'll give me all of your money and give up on your mission and tell Sarutobi-sensei to sod it."

Naruto raised a shaky hand and gave a thumbs up, "Deal. One week. Necklace. Go home. Okay. Now I'm going to pass out now." he finished as he fell backwards.

XxX

The next day, a heavily bandaged Naruto sat in his room along with Shizune who was sitting across from him. He hummed in thought as he went through everything he had just been told, "So the old hag is the way she is because two of her loved ones died in the past?"

Shizune nodded, "Yes. She isn't a bad person. She's just bitter."

For the past hour since Shizune had arrived, she had told Naruto why Tsunade acted the way she did. The reason being that she lost two of her loved ones who were ninja in service Konoha with the other link connecting them that they all wished to be Hokage.

"And the necklace she has is cursed?" Shizune nodded once more before a grin came onto Naruto's face as he stood up, "Well, it seems I'll be the next guy wearing that necklace then. I'm going to win this little wager of ours dattebayo!"

Shizune blinked, "...Dattebayo?" and completely missed the point of what Naruto had just said, "Is that even a word? What does it even mean?" she asked as she stifled a giggle.

Naruto blushed in embarrassment as he quickly tried to make Shizune forget what he just said, "Just forget it! It's nothing! Just pretend you didn't here anything Shizune-chan!"

Shizune giggled, her countenance changing completely from the serious and grim one she wore just before, "There's nothing wrong with it, I think it's rather cute actually...dattebayo."

The blonde threw his hands into the air in exasperation, "That's it! I'm just going to go train now!" he grumbled as he grabbed his stuff and made for the door, "Dammit! If there was something wrong with that verbal tick, someone should have pointed it out long ago!" he groused as he walked away.

XxX

Over the next week, Naruto threw himself into his training into learning the Rasengan. Of course he created groups of clones to work on his elemental manipulation, fuuinjutsu, the ninjutsus the Sandaime had given him when he was promoted and continued working on his kenjutsu and had found himself steadily getting used to wielding two blades at once.

Probably had something to do with the fact that most of the time, he had 20 or so clones training their bladework.

He still needed weights to increase his speed but his kicks and punches could carry a large amount of damage behind them. He had always been able to hit hard.

Halfway through the week when he was trying to learn the Rasengan. The blonde had managed to garner some sort of breakthrough in the jutsu. His problem was that he couldn't hold the form of the Rasengan for long before it destabilized.

He had been completely confounded on what to do before realizing keeping the shape was probably linked with his chakra control. Therefore, halfway through, he had created a new platoon of clones that were solely for chakra control exercises and over the rest of the week, he could see improvements as his Rasengan now stabilized for five seconds instead of the three.

Well...it might have been a two second increase, but it was progress.

XxX

Naruto awoke on his bed with a fresh face, "Today's the day I get that necklace!" he declared before jumping out of bed and promptly tripping over a black bundle of something. He looked back at what he tripped over and raised an eyebrow, "...Shizune-chan? What are you doing on my floor?"

The woman's eyes slowly opened before widening as she jumped up to her feet, "Tsunade-sama!" she yelled surprising Naruto, "Where is she!?"

Naruto was confused, "What does the old hag having anything to do with this?"

Shizune noted him before heading towards the window, "Naruto! Stay here!" she ordered as she opened the window to climb out only to stop when she noticed something, "Jiraiya-sama!"

"Where's Tsunade?" the sannin asked with a threatening tone to his voice as he slinked along the wall. He didn't look like he was at his best.

"What happened to you ero-sennin?" Naruto asked after noticing the condition the man was in.

Jiraiya sat on the window sill as Shizune ran inside for some medicine for whatever was ailing him, "Tsunade drugged me. Should have known something was up. She wasn't as pissy as usual."

Tsunade came rushing back to the window with some crushed pills and a glass of water, "Sorry Jiraiya-sama, this isn't the antidote, but it'll help in the least."

Jiraiya gulped down the pills and water, "Thank you Shizune."

Taking all things into consideration from the day they got here, Naruto spoke out about the cause of the current mess, "It's Orochimaru isn't it?" the look of surprise on Shizune's face was more than enough to give him and Jiraiya the answer they wanted, "Hey ero-sennin, how you feeling?"

Jiraiya concentrated on himself for a bit, "I'm good, my chakra is fluctuating, but it should be fine." he cast a glance towards Naruto, "If I say you're not coming, you're going to come either way aren't you?" Naruto eagerly nodded in confirmation as he removed his weights, "I thought so."

"So how are going to find the hag anyway?" Naruto asked particularly no-one.

The answer was given by an oink as the pig before appeared in Shizune's hands, "Tonton has Tsunade-sama's scent." she answered as the pig sniffed the air, "I'll explain on the way."

XxX

The quartet of three humans and pig found themselves back at the demolished castle but this time, it showed signs of more damage than it had before, "Seems like the hime declined the offer." Jiraiya commented from the additional damage to the area.

Shizune looked around worriedly for her master, "So where is she?"

Naruto pointed towards the giant, fist made craters in the ground that led away from the castle, "I get the feeling if we follow these things, we'll find her."

"Good idea gaki!" Jiraiya praised as he led the way following the craters. They arrived in a field to find Tsunade being beaten by Kabuto although she seemed to not be fighting back in the slightest.

Naruto looked at the scene in confusion, "Is she in a genjutsu or something?"

Jiraiya shook his head in the negative, "Tsunade has hemophobia. She's afraid of blood kid, even the sight of it causes her to go like that. Right now, she's utterly useless."

Naruto looked in front of him to see a long-haired man with pale skin with his hands bandaged up, "That's Orochimaru…" he commented before noticing Kabuto who stood beside his master, with his now usual smirk on his face.

Jiraiya looked around at the situation and wouldn't have minded the odds one bit if it wasn't for the fact that his chakra was completely messed up at the moment. Getting his game face on, he decided to deal out the orders, "Alright, Tsunade, if you can hear me, heal yourself."

"What about me ero-sennin?" Naruto asked ready for action.

"You protect Tsunade and the pig."

Naruto wanted to argue against the order given to him, but then again, he would be making himself a hypocrite by not following orders from his superior and Jiraiya was his superior, "Fine. Protect the hag and the pig. Got it."

Naruto moved to protect Tsunade and the pig like he had been ordered as the other ninjas in the group faced off against each other. With some unspoken signal, the two sannins blurred into action as both sannins used their respective summons, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

The results of the summon were completely different as Orochimaru managed to summon two giants snakes with the help of Kabuto and Jiraiya…"**Sup?**" the voice of Gamakichi rang out.

'The drug is still affecting Jiraiya-sama!' Shizune noted with some worry at seeing his small toad summon.

Atop his snake summon, Orochimaru laughed at the scene, "Kukukuku, I still your stupidity has not yet been cured has it after all this time. If that's so, I'll attack first!"

'This is bad...if there's something wrong with ero-sennin, then...' the blonde bit his finger and went through hand seals before slamming his hand into the ground, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

The act caught the attention of everyone in the area as they looked towards him before the smoke cleared to reveal he had summoned a frog the size of Gamakichi but this one yellow in colour. Naruto looked down in horror at what he had summoned and here he had thought he managed to one-up Jiraiya.

'Seems like he still needs some work.' Jiraiya thought with a dry expression, 'But that shows the brat for trying to one up me.' he finished rather mischieviously.

"**Gamatatsu, what are you doing here?"** Gamakichi asked as he hopped over to the frog.

The yellow frog notice Gamakichi heading towards him, "**Ah! Gamakichi-niisan! This is my first summoning but I'll try my hardest!"**

Deciding that it was time to get serious, Jiraiya put on his game face once more, "Gaki! Room!" he ordered as he went through hand seals himself, "Doton: Yomi Numa (Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld)!"

A large area in front of him turned into a dark, murky substance that trapped the snakes as it disable their movement, "Dammit!" Jiraiya cursed audibly, "It isn't that deep at all! The drug must still be affecting me!"

With the snakes disabled, Kabuto moved to attack the most vulnerable targets whilst Jiraiya left to attack the most dangerous, albeit handicapped opponent on the field at the moment.

Shizune got herself ready when she saw Kabuto rushing towards her and immediately prepared herself to use a jutsu, "Dokugiri (Poison Mist)!" she released a poisonous cloud of gas towards the on-rushing Kabuto hitting him.

She waited for the gas to clear before noticing that there wasn't a highly poisoned and presumably dead body anywhere in the cloud's vicinity before she found herself losing strength in her legs, "W-what?"

Kabuto smirked as he socked her one sending the dark-haired woman tumbling backwards to stop in front of Naruto and Tsunade. His smirk was still on his face as he adjusted his glasses, "Well, would you look at that. It's just me and you now Naruto-kun."

The blonde grimaced as he drew the two tanto sheathed behind him, "Seems like it. I hope you're ready for an ass-kicking."

Apparently, that statement was highly amusing towards the traitor who chuckled some, "To be such a naive genin...you always did lack in the brain department didn't you Naruto-kun? Believing you can fight and defeat anyone."

Naruto narrowed his eyes in anger, "_Chunin_ actually. I got promoted...on my first try unlike some." he taunted, granted he was sure the guy had failed to keep his cover, but hey, it was something to use.

That statement actually caused Kabuto to laugh out loudly, "_You_ got promoted?" he asked with something of a disbelieving tone, "Amazing...Konoha must be really going down the drain if you were promoted."

Naruto got himself ready, "Why don't I show you why I got promoted you bastard? By the time I'm done with you, hebi-teme will have lost his favourite bum-buddy." he grinned when he saw his last statement had some effect on the traitor as Kabuto glowered at him.

XxX

Jiraiya and Orochimaru had reached a stalemate and thus, they were just content at just eyeing each other off. Jiraiya decided to be a wise-ass and make a crack at his former teammate based on observations during their previous encounter, "Must suck not being able to use all those jutsu you painstakingly collected cause of the no arms and everything. I really do feel for you."

Orochimaru snorted, "I don't need my arms to defeat you Jiraiya. I saw your weak jutsu, you're just as bad as me."

He barked out a laughter, "Well, there's no denying that. Tsunade sure did a number on me. I guess all we can do is watch my apprentice kick your apprentices ass from this side of the world, to the other."

That statement caused Orochimaru to laugh, "The Kyuubi-brat Jiraiya? Really? From what I saw, he has no talent to speak off. I'm actually surprised he was promoted...but then again, if they promote people like him, destroying Konoha in the future will be far easier than I thought."

Jiraiya smirked, "Well, why don't we just find out then?"

XxX

Kabuto just stood there smirking at Naruto, "You might want to leave Naruto-kun before things get messy. It doesn't matter if you're a chunin or not, you're a little out of your element here. Orochimaru-sama, Jiraiya, Tsunade and even that dark haired woman are all high-level shinobi, you? Not so much."

"Say that when I kick your ass you bastard." the blonde retorted as he created several clones. The Narutos all released a hail of shuriken towards Kabuto who merely sighed as he prepared to dodge the projectiles, "Futon: Reppushou!"

Kabuto's eyes widened when a gale of wind markedly increased the speed which the shuriken where travelling in, throwing off his timing. A quick substitution with an earth clone managed to save him from becoming riddled with shuriken, "So you have learned some new tricks have you?" he commented with the smirk still on his face as his hands glowed with chakra, "That still doesn't change the fact you're out of your league." he finished as he rushed Naruto.

Naruto having seen his hands glowed when he took down Shizune knew getting touched by them was probably not going to end well for him, thus he created more clones and send them off to charge Kabuto first.

After learning that the experiences of the clones he created would be relayed to him, the blonde had decided to use that to his advantage in a fight by letting his clones attack first so that when they got destroyed, he would get a handle on how people fought, actively making it so that he got multitude of fighting experience against someone.

It wasn't perfect, but it still did its job as the blonde learned from his clones being dispelled that Kabuto was fast, like Kakashi fast and he had only started wearing weights to increase his speed only recently.

He hadn't been joking when he said he was an equal to Kakashi.

Fighting him head on was tantamount to suicide at this point, thus the blonde decided to get creative.

"You're running out of clones Naruto-kun!" Kabuto stated absentmindedly as he destroyed two more clones merely by tapping them on their chests with his Chakura no Mesu Jutsu (Chakra Scalpel Jutsu), severing their hearts, "At this rate, you're going to having to face me yourself. And die probably."

Kabuto ducked under a swing from from a clone before retaliating with a kick to the offending clone. Several more clones were dispatched in quick succession before he felt a sudden change in the wind, "Futon: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)!"

Kabuto immediately channeled chakra to his feet to make himself difficult to move from the wind jutsu and would have commented on the failure of the jutsu as it didn't have enough power to knock anyone away if he hadn't been alerted to the sudden fact that around him floating to the ground around him, 'He used the jutsu-!' he didn't finish his thought as the explosives tag did what they did best, explode.

Once again, a substitution from an earth clone had saved him from becoming nothing more than a burnt husk of a body. Kabuto looked in annoyance at singed right arm, "It seems I've been underestimating you a bit Naruto-kun…" he commented as he made himself known to the blonde.

Several dozen clones immediately jumped onto him, "Clones again Naruto-kun? This is getting rather tedious." he commented as he fought the clones again in a leisurely manner. Unfortunately for him, the leisurely manner he was fighting worked against him as the clones now having of a basic outline of how he fought as he prioritised hitting his opponent's torso with his Chakura no Mesu Jutsu in order to cut into vital organs such as the lungs or heart.

If he wasn't also looking down on Naruto, he would have also noted that some clones were seemingly giving him openings to hit as if they wanted to be destroyed, and thus he missed the fact that from those clones, the smoke they emitted when they dispelled was clouding his vision of his surroundings.

One clone managed to latch onto him from behind, this gave another clone the chance to latch onto a hand and another a leg, "Oh look, you caught me?" he said in a tone that showed he wasn't concerned in the slightest at his current predicament, "Now what happens next after you've caught me?"

A gradual swirling sound could be heard from somewhere in the smoke cloud, "This is what I'm going to do! Rasengan (Spiralling Sphere)!"

Naruto appeared behind him to smash the blue ball of energy into the back Kabuto before the force of the jutsu spun him a fair distance away.

Naruto turned towards Tsunade with a wide grin, "Hey baa-chan, see that? One week! That necklace is mine!"

XxX

Shizune had managed to finally clean the blood away from Tsunade's face in hopes that it will cause her master to start responding to the world again, but instead found out she still lacked a response. She had taken to watching Naruto fight Kabuto and had been ready to intervene when she had finally finished healing her torn achilles heels.

She had been pleasantly surprised when she saw the blonde hold his own against the jounin-level ninja and took it to the fact that he was being looked down on by the person known as Kabuto. A bad mistake on his part when she saw him flying from the smoke cloud into a boulder a fair distance away.

This had also been witnessed by Tsunade whose eyes had been fixed straight ahead since she had blood splattered over herself and thus even if she wanted to, she could only see the fight and honestly, she was somewhat amazed. Watching the blonde haired kid that had mouthed off at her beat an opponent that should have decimated him made her realise how pathetic she was.

Someone like her with such a famous lineage and reputation among the Elemental Nations was so bitter and disenfranchised so much that she let her skills drop so that someone like him could get the better of her. That shouldn't have happened, no matter how dangerous he was.

Out of curiosity, she had watched him train on occasion and was surprised and amazed. The fact that the boy could use the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu had come as something of a surprise to her, and she was even more surprised when she found him training with the clones and was honestly surprised when she saw him train himself with the Rasengan and not delegate the tasks to his clones.

Even when the jutsu exploded in his face, he would crack jokes at himself and keep working himself hard to learn it. He never backed down even if it looked like he was never going to master it.

She clutched the necklace around her neck, maybe this time, she could believe in someone again.

XxX

'That was the Yondaime's jutsu…!' Orochimaru thought as he watched with shock at the result of Naruto's fight, 'That kid...he's going to become a hassle, I'll have to kill him...now!'

Jiraiya was silently celebrating to himself and was about to make a wisecrack remark when he saw Orochimaru jump off the snake. He tried to stop him but was tossed aside, due to Tsunade's drug still being in effect.

As he flew towards Naruto, the Kusanagi sword emerged from his mouth as he homed in on Naruto's back who's attention was still turned towards Tsunade, 'Die!'

Naruto who was currently quite proud of himself at having beaten Kabuto and still feeling the buzz from his win felt his senses go off telling him trouble was afoot. He immediately spun on his heel with his tanto out and barely managed to stop himself from getting his heart pierced by the Kusanagi as it instead went through his shoulder, breaking one of his tanto on its way through.

Orochimaru cursed, "Just die boy! You'll ruin my plans for the future!"

Gritting through the pain he was currently feeling, Naruto gave the sannin a toothy grin as he was pushed back, "No thanks. I can't really die yet without becoming Hokage hebi-teme! But first, I have to bring baa-chan over there back to Konoha!"

Tsunade's eyes widened at that, 'He just looks like Nawaki.'

Orochimaru scoffed as he pulled out the sword allowing blood to freely flow out of the wound on Naruto before setting himself to bring it down on him with a slash only to be stopped when a fist introduced itself to his face, sending him flying some distance away.

Naruto blinked as he looked up to see the owner of the fist being Tsunade, "Uh...baa-chan?"

A tick mark formed on Tsunade's head, "Call me that again brat...I dare you." she threatened as she noticed the wound on his shoulder, the sight of blood still unnerved her, but that didn't mean she was going to allow it to shake her up anymore, "Shizune!"

"Yes Tsunade-sama?" the dark haired woman replied in surprise at suddenly being called out.

"Heal the brat. I want him to be in top condition when I give him a beat down over this 'baa-chan' crap." a look of realisation came to her face, "Oh yeah. I guess you won didn't you." she finished as she threw him her necklace.

As Shizune went to do as she was ordered, Orochimaru made himself known once more as he cracked his jaw back into place, "Tsunade, what are you doing? Why would you risk your life for that brat?"

Tsunade cracked her knuckles, "I would risk my life because I am Tsunade Senju, granddaughter of the Shodai, grandniece of the Nidaime Hokage and as of right now, the Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato."

"Yeah! Go baa-chan! You tell him!" Naruto cheered from the sidelines.

"Orochimaru-sama!" Kabuto yelled out as he appeared beside his master and drew more blood for the summoning tattoo.

Naruto blinked, "Hey! You should be dead!"

"Naruto!" Jiraiya yelled as he appeared beside his student, "Bring out Gamabunta!"

"I have a hole in my shoulder, but sure, why not?" the blonde wise cracked as he did what was asked of him.

Tsunade followed the trend that was going on and summoned her own creature.

Three massives plumes of smoke went throughout the area to reveal a massive toad, slug and snake. Gamabunta let out a puff of smoke from his lips, "**Well, if it isn't Manda and Katsuyu, how long has it been since I last saw you two?"**

Jiraiya looked down at the boss toad, "Bunta, we're gonna need your help on this one, you in?"

"**Sure, why not? I can finally get that snakeskin wallet I've been after."**

"Why would you need a snakeskin wallet?" Naruto asked with genuine curiosity.

"**For the missus you brat. We're going to need to have that drink sometime."**

Tsunade looked at Orochimaru from atop Katsuyu, "After this Orochimaru, there will be one less sannin in the world."

The threat didn't register with the snake sannin as he merely chuckled whilst Manda hissed underneath him, "**What is this? Why did you summon me here of all places Orochimaru?"**

Kabuto made a move to calm the snake down but was quickly rebuffed before he could finish a single word, "**Silence whelp! I won't bother speaking to a flunky like you!"** the snakes attention was dragged to the top of his head, "**I expect over a hundred sacrifices for this!"**

Orochimaru smirked, "Of course, nothing less for you."

Kabuto let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, 'Thank goodness. If he knew Orochimaru-sama couldn't use jutsu, he might as well have just eaten us.'

"Once again, I reiterate, I have a hole in my shoulder, I have no intention in getting myself involved in this one." Naruto said for once not eager to get into a fight. He didn't really think he would last long if he involved himself in this particular fight amongst the three Sannin.

Jiraiya looked at him owlishly, "Really?" he asked as if he couldn't believe what he just heard, "Well...if you say so, go play house with Shizune then."

Naruto flipped him off as he did what was asked, "Fuck you!" he yelled out as he made his way down, "At least Shizune-chan can heal my stupid shoulder."

Naruto landed not far from the woman who had just finished off healing her legs, "Naruto-kun! Your shoulder!"

"I know, can you heal it for me?" he asked before they both had to stumble after the earth shook as the summons moved into action, "Preferably somewhere far away from here."

Shizune could only nod as she led the boy away from the area. That was a good idea since the battle between the three Sannins was something not to be laughed about, even if all three of them where not at their best, especially since the majority of the battle was between their summons and not between themselves.

He was quite thankful for that, the summons were already causing enough damage as it was.

"I really need to get some Katon jutsu down." Naruto let out as he watched Gamabunta and Jiraiya combine to light a giant fire to cook Orochimaru and his summon, "That looks painful and cool."

Awe was then replaced with fear when Naruto saw Tsunade dug Gamabunta's giant tanto into Manda's mouth. That thing was at least several stories in length and she had just lifted it up like it was just your average every day.

Shizune saw the look of trepidation on Naruto's face and laughed somewhat sheepishly, "It's alright Naruto-kun...I'm sure she was only joking before. I think." she said the last part lowly.

Eventually, the two loyal Sannins managed to force the criminal sannin to retreat as it was foolhardy fighting both sannins at once, even if they were both handicapped. Jiraiya walked over to Naruto with a grin on his face and slapped him on his shoulder, "Good job brat! Your first high level fight as a newly ordained chunin and you aren't a stain on the ground!" he praised...well, it was supposed to be praise but sounded more like an insult to Naruto.

Naruto couldn't really careless about that as Jiraiya had slapped him on his bad shoulder, the one that still had something of a hole in it, "Ow!" he swatted the offending hand away from, "Watch where you put your giant, toady hands dammit! I have a hole in my shoulder!"

Jiraiya snorted, "Man up brat, you're going to have worse wounds than that in your career."

Naruto didn't believe that for a second, "Yeah, like what?" if only he knew.

Jiraiya shrugged as he noticed Tsunade wiping some blood of her blouse, "No, no, no, no. That isn't right, a lovely lady like you shouldn't be wearing a blood-stained clothes like that, it should be a dress or no dress at all. Lucky for you, I've got a no dress code back in my room!"

Naruto opened his mouth to dispute that since they shared a room only to see the man that was his teacher get sent flying into the stratosphere by a punchy from the legendary medic, "Damn pervert!" she growled before turning to Naruto, "Alright, let me see that shoulder you're bitching about. Can't believe someone who wants to be Hokage is as wimpy as you."

Kami, what was wrong with these people? Did they not know how painful it is having a damned hole in your shoulder was? He would have mouthed off at her if he hadn't started feeling the effects of her healing jutsu.

He can mouth off at her later, when he didn't have a hole in his shoulder.

* * *

**AN: Will probably be concentrating on this one for a while. Too many ideas with this one to concentrate on the other.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

* * *

(Konoha)

The walk back to Konoha was entirely uneventful. It was just Naruto, Shizune, Tsunade, Jiraiya and Tonton making casual chatter with the occasional explosion of something from Naruto's clones that were busy training some sort of jutsu or the likes. Jiraiya had even taken it upon himself to teach Naruto the basis of Katon ninjutsu after seeing the blonde fail miserably at training in the element.

Currently, the group was walking through the only main road in Konoha that directly led to the Hokage building where Tsunade was to be briefed about the current state of Konoha from the advisors.

Naruto felt somewhat nervous as he found himself one of the objects of stares as people were lined up on the street to see the return of the second of the Sannin, "Nervous brat?" Tsunade asked when she noticed the blonde's apprehension.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah...we've only been in Konoha for less than 10 minutes…" he said as he noticed people whisper among themselves about Tsunade and Jiraiya, "How did they know so fast?"

Jiraiya was the one who answered, "Probably one of the patrol units noticed us and send a message back...and well those old fossils probably let slip the news and all."

"Why?" Naruto asked. He didn't really see the point of doing this, didn't these people have other things to do than just see, albeit, really famous ninja in town?

"To spread the news of course gaki." Jiraiya answered the blonde in quite the chipper tone, "Every shinobi village has spies, no matter how much someone tries to rid of them, there'll always be spies. Most villages keep track of them and only give them tidbits of some true and some false information. Something like this is needed since the invasion."

He paused to regain his breath, "It pretty much sends a message of somewhere along the lines of, 'There's now _two_ Sannins in Konoha. Try to mess with us and it ain't gonna be pretty.' well, something like that at least."

Naruto nodded as he understood what Jiraiya was getting at. Konoha needed to show that they were still a force to be reckoned with and what better way than have two sannins instead of one? After all two is better than one.

From the edge of his eyes, the blonde's attention was caught by a shop, "Oh right, baa-chan, what sort of flowers do you to buy to give to someone who's recovering?"

Tsunade shrugged, "Try lilies. I've seen so many lilies in patient rooms."

"Thanks!" Naruto answered before running off and disappearing into the crowds that lined the street.

Tsunade looked at the place where the blonde had disappeared off to, "What was that about?" she asked.

Jiraiya shrugged, "Don't know. Maybe he wants to buy flowers for his teammate, the Uchiha," he said before pausing and _actually_ thinking about what he said, "Actually, scratch what I just said. I don't know what he's buying flowers for."

A few minutes later, Naruto reappeared, "Alright, since you're going to end up at the hospital anyway, I'll see you guys there." the blonde said before speeding off once more.

"...Why would we end up at the hospital?" Tsunade asked with genuine confusion.

Shizune looked at her master with an unreadable expression, "So that you can help Kakashi-san, Uchiha-san and Lee-san." she answered dutifully.

A look of realisation came across Tsunade's face, "Oh yeah...forgot about that. Well, let's go see the old monkey first. I'm sure he'll be glad to see me."

"He'll be more ecstatic to finally be able to read my books in peace without having to worry about someone walking in on him!" Jiraiya chimed in.

Tsunade's expression fell, "Oh yeah...he's a perverted old man too isn't he? And you say he was the male role model in the brat's life?"

Jiraiya nodded, "Then there was Kakashi, some guy called Iruka and finally the awesome me." he finished with a puffed out chest.

Tsunade placed her hand on her face as she shook her head, "The brat doesn't stand a chance." she muttered underneath her breath.

(Konoha Hospital)

After much asking and being deflected by various hospital workers until he found a respectable doctor who could actually answer his query, Naruto had finally found the hospital room he was looking for and knocked on it lightly.

He didn't have to wait long before he heard a call for him to enter. The blonde opened the door and entered the room with a slight aura of nervousness around him, he didn't know why, but he just did, "Uh hi there!" the blonde greeted to the lone occupant of the room.

The girl looked at the short, blonde teen in front of her with an unsure expression, "Hi?" she said trying to know who he was. He couldn't have been an interrogator, he was far too young and stupid looking, "Who are you?" she asked.

Ah right, she probably didn't know who he was. The last time she saw him, her eyes were so glazed over, it would be a surprised if she actually managed to catch any details of her surroundings, "I'm Naruto." the blonde introduced himself, "I'm the guy that removed you from the coffin and all of that."

That seemed to cause the girls' eyes to widen in realisation. She might have been out of it, but she did remember the blindingly, bright blonde hair which also caused her to remember that the boy in front of her was also part of the team that her target was part of, "Oh! Thanks for saving me!" she said gratefully. She really was. She had gone through a lot in her short 14 years of life and she didn't particularly feel like having ended in such a pathetic way of being used as a sacrifice for some jutsu.

"No problem. I just couldn't leave you like that. I'm a good natured human being." he said to her as he juggled the flowers in his hands, "Do you mind if I put the flowers in the vase?" he asked as he indicated towards a glass vase on her bedside table.

Kin shook her head, "Go on." she said, "You're the first visitor that actually came to visit me instead of asking me questions about Oto." that brought a look of thought to her face, "Actually, how can you do that? I'm something of a prisoner-of-war and you're a genin. You can't have access to me that easily." she questioned Naruto who had just finished putting the flowers into the vase.

Naruto chuckled sheepishly as he took a seat, "Well, I sort of know the most important person in the village on a personal basis. And I figured you must need a change of scenery from seeing the usual scarred old men here to question you and all of that."

"That's sexist." she said with a serious tone, "There were some women who questioned me." she finished lightheartedly.

"My bad. I hope they weren't too rough?" he asked unsurely. He didn't know if he should say that or not.

"Not really. I might-" she paused before speaking again, "I _was_ a ninja of Oto, but I was a genin. Even worse, I was nothing more than cannon fodder to Orochimaru. Unless you were important enough, he didn't tell you anything. It seems your interrogators knew that enough so they just asked me if I knew the base of operations of Oto where?"

"And?" Naruto asked.

"I freely gave them the information that I didn't know. Oto isn't one village like other Shinobi villages. It's just a series of underground bases and the one where our team came from was on the fringe of the system."

"Wow, you're really talkative about this." Naruto noted.

Kin let out a bitter laugh, "Why shouldn't I be? I can't hold my loyalty to someone like him. Hell, I never had any loyalty towards him. It was all for show."

Naruto frowned at that, "Then why did you become a ninja for him?" he asked with honest curiosity. If she didn't like him or was even loyal to him, then why did she decide to become a ninja underneath him.

"I showed some talent to be a ninja. It was either this, or become a lab rat for his experiments." Naruto cringed as she nodded, "Yeah...and even then, it was pretty much walking on tiptoes in Oto. One mistake and you'll either be killed or be made a lab rat."

"That must have been tough." Naruto said as she nodded in agreements, "Well, at least you can forget about that, you're in Konoha now. We do things a little differently here."

"I noticed." she said as she looked around, "I'm all healthy now and I do hope that my prison cell is as luxurious as this."

"Prison cell?" Naruto let out in surprise.

Kin quirked an eyebrow, "What, did you think they'll just let me out? Not going to happen kid. I'm an enemy ninja, I'm sure I fill in a lot of security risks if I'm left to wander about to my own devices."

"One, I am not a kid. I'm 13 years old, like a year younger than you!" he let out with an annoyed tone amongst Kin's amused laughter. Naruto then frowned at what she had said before, "But you don't work for Oto."

"I know." she said, "But I don't really care either way. I'm sure jails here are even several classes above those in Oto, so I wouldn't mind one bit." she said with some truth to her words. She really didn't care where she went as long as the jails were not of the quality of Oto.

Naruto stood up, "Well...you may think that, but I don't. You're alright, I'll talk to some people and see what I can do for you."

"What people would you know?"

"Did you just forget what I said earlier? I know some _top_ people. Just believe in me and we'll have your pretty little face out of here in no time." Naruto froze as what he just said registered with his mind, "Forget what I just said! Ero-sennin's influence must be spreading faster than I thought." the blonde grumpled as he left the room.

Kin looked with an amused expression at the door, "What a weird kid." she then flopped down on her bed, "And I guess it wouldn't hurt to not be seeing four walls every single day…"

XxX

(Yakiniku Q)

"Wow…" Ino sniggered as she sat in a booth, "Even a lazy bastard like you can look good in a chunin vest."

She was joined in by her portly teammate, "You look funny in it Shika."

Opposite the table to them sat Shikamaru with an embarrassed blush on his face, "Don't laugh dammit."

Asuma grinned as he smoked his cigarette, "Anyway, let's celebrate Shikamaru's promotion!"

"Itadakimasu!" the group of four chorused.

"Hey Chouji!" Ino shouted as she saw the portly boy as she saw him grab a piece of meat, "Don't eat before we toast!" she chided him before sighing in defeat, "Why do I even bother?" she muttered.

Asuma grinned, "You bother because you care."

Ino rolled her eyes as she also took some meat. Care? Why would she care about her no good team that had a lazy jounin for a sensei, a gentle hearted giant and a lazy, no good-, "How did you get promoted Sasuke-kun?" Ino asked with a disbelieving tone, "It's just not possible for the guy with the second worst grades of our class to get promoted to chunin first before everyone else. Especially Sasuke-kun!"

Shikamaru shrugged as he lazily ate his food, "How should I know? They said something about me having the right qualities of a leader and all that." he answered with a dismissive tone and wave of the hand. Just thinking about the responsibilities and work that came with being a chunin was enough to make him depressed.

"Actually…" Asuma chimed in as he took a drag of his cigarette, "You're not the first of your class to be promoted."

"I'm/He's not?" the chunin and two genin of Team 10 asked in perfect sync at that little statement.

Asuma nodded, "Yep! Shika's actually the second to be promoted from your little class."

"Yatta!" Ino shouted in celebration, "I knew it there was no way they wouldn't promote Sasuke-kun!" she exclaimed. With Sasuke being made chunin, that meant he spent less time with her arch-rival and nemesis, albeit friend, Sakura.

"Yeah...that's wrong too." Asuma drawled out as he just couldn't wait for the expression on their faces when he tells them who had actually been promoted first. Hell, he had been surprised when he had first learned of it.

"Eh?" Ino let out in confusion at she sat back down, "If it's not Sasuke-kun, then who is it?"

Asuma grinned as he purposefully took a long drag of his cigarette to let the suspense build, "The one who was promoted to chunin before Shika here is…" he paused to add even more suspense as his genin leaned in waiting for the answer. Even Shikamaru wanted to know, "Uzumaki Naruto!"

He immediately whipped out a camera when he saw the looks of shock on the genins face and took pictures of them for himself as a memento, "Ah...sometimes, I love this job."

Ino was the first to get her bearings, "That's not funny Asuma-sensei! How could Naruto be promoted before any of us? He was the worst student ever!"

Asuma nodded, "Yet he defeated the Rookie of the Year from the previous year and then went on to win against Sabaku no Gaara during the invasion."

That was another bombshell for them to learn. They and the majority of the village that went in the know had been led to believe Sasuke had been the one to defeat Gaara during the invasion, not the diminutive, obnoxious, orange wearing, no talent brat.

Shikamaru groaned as he slumped into his seat, "Seriously Naruto, can't you be the lameass-type I pegged you to be? Not this kick-ass type you're suddenly making yourself out to be."

Ino was still in shock from the news to comment, but Chouji wasn't as he chuckled, "Well, he _is _a surprising guy that Naruto. He won against Kiba when no-one thought he could."

Ino managed to get herself together, "_Naruto_?" she breathed out the name with a tone that cried blasphemy of the highest order, "Naruto..._Naruto _is a chunin?" she clutched her face in horror, "If the two worst students of our year became chunin before everyone else, what does that say about the rest of the class?"

Asuma shrugged, "I don't know. I can come up with a few things, but all of them don't sound very good." he finished with a grin, "Want me to share some of them?"

"Shut up Asuma-sensei."

XxX

(Konoha Hospital)

After visiting Kin, Naruto had decided to go see his hospitalised sensei and teammate. This meant that he had to go back downstairs to reception and find a hospital worker willing to tell him the information he wanted to know.

Fortunately for him, he didn't have to go far as he ran into three people he had come to know very well over recent times, "Baa-chan?" Naruto said in realisation when he saw the ample-bosomed woman walking down a hallway accompanied by Jiraiya and Shizune, "What are you doing here?"

Ignoring the way Naruto had addressed her, Tsunade looked at Naruto, "What, don't you remember? I'm here to heal that sensei and teammate of yours."

"Oh yeah!" Naruto said in realisation, "You haven't done that already?"

Tsunade shook her head, "No. I had to do some Hokage stuff."

"Technically, you aren't Hokage yet hime." Jiraiya chimed in from the side.

The female ninja huffed, "Shut up Jiraiya. Don't let me pummel you into a wall." She then turned her attention towards Naruto after cowing in her teammate, "So did you go see whoever you wanted to see? Did they like the flowers?"

"Yeah I did." The blonde admitted before scrunching up his face in thought, "I think she did-."

'She?' The others thought simultaneously. Jiraiya was even having some thoughts about the matter about interrogating his apprentice about this female character he had gone to see.

Naruto continued talking, "-Mind you though, I think I'm the only person she's seen who wasn't there to question her about stuff."

'Question?' The others thought once more before a look of realisation came across Jiraiya's face. Tsunade noticed it before messaging her teammate with hand signals they had developed during the two wars they had fought in, '_Who is he talking about?_'

'_An Oto prisoner he saved from being used as a sacrifice by Orochimaru._' The male Sannin replied back.

Tsunade blinked, '_Should he be doing that?'_ She signalled him.

Jiraiya stifled a laughter as he shook his head lightly, '_Don't worry about it. She's basically harmless. Orochimaru rated her as nothing more than cannon fodder.'_ He finished with a slight frown at the thought of his former teammate.

Tsunade nodded before smirking, '_Oh well, at least I've got something to tease the brat about.'_

Whilst the two Sannins had been talking amongst themselves, Shizune had been making conversation with Naruto, "So what are you doing now Naruto-kun?"

Naruto locked his hands behind his head, "I was going to find someone who would tell me which room they're keeping Sasuke-teme at."

Shizune raised an eyebrow, "'Sasuke-teme'?" She repeated unsurely, "Isn't that your teammate?"

"The one and only." Naruto confirmed with a heavy sigh, "He's a bit of a dick sometimes, but he's...not alright the majority of the other times. He's always a dick now that I think about." He then thought the time that he saved him in Nami no Kuni and then his little episode against Gaara when he tried to sacrifice himself to allow himself and Sakura to escape, "But he does have his moments of not being a dick. But that's like only two times."

Shizune giggled, "Why don't you come with us then? We know what room he is in."

Naruto blinked before grinning, "Alright! Now I don't have to go all the way down to the ground floor!" He blinked when he realised the older persons had started walking away, "Hey wait for me! Not cool!"

The group of four travelled through the hospital towards their destination before coming to a halt outside a door. Tsunade was the first to enter followed by Naruto, "Hey Sakura-chan!" The blonde greeted when he saw his pink-haired teammate in the room.

Sakura turned around when she heard the voice of her blonde teammate, quickly covering up the solemn expression she had before, "Naruto?" She called out quietly before noticing the added company that was with him, 'Who are they?'

The blonde grinned with his hands locked behind his head, "The one and only. Don't worry about Sasuke. He'll be alright now." He indicated towards Tsunade, "She's a great doctor. She'll heal him up real quickly."

Tsunade made her way towards the Uchiha and noticed Sakura casting something of a wary look. She was rather amused by that but didn't show it, 'The flowers are still fresh. Has she been visiting every day?' She mused when she saw some flowers on the bedside table in a vase.

Her attention was taken away from the vase by Sakura who bowed in front of her, "I heard from Gai-sensei. Please heal Sasuke-kun!" The young girl begged.

Tsunade just gave her a confident grin, "Alright, leave it to me!" Tsunade placed a palm on Sasuke's forehead before her hands glowed green. The Slug Sannin glanced at Sakura, "Alright, he'll wake up soon."

Naruto watched from the sides as Tsunade did her magic. His usual attitude and personality hid many things from those that didn't know what to look for. But for those that knew what to look for, many would notice that he was rather observant sometimes when he needed to be observant.

Now that he was a chuunin, he wanted to make sure that he was always aware of his surroundings and thus had been making sure he was always observing his surroundings. Because of this, he noticed the tears well up in Sakura's eyes before a lone tear started slowly, streaking down her face.

"_Well actually, it could lead them noticing you but its a completely different thing with that crush of yours. She seems entirely dedicated to the Uchiha, maybe even love him from what I've observed. No matter what you do, she's never going to like you kiddo. Just get over it and move on."_

Jiraiya words came back to hit him as he watched the tear continue on its journey. A small solemn smile formed on his lips, 'Heh, it was a childish crush anyway.' He reasoned with himself, ignoring the pang in his heart, 'Well, there's plenty more fish in the sea anyway.'

As Sasuke came to and Sakura immediately made to hug him and now freely let the tears fall, Naruto made for the door. His exit was only noticed by the elders of the room, 'He's more sensitive than he shows.' Tsunade mused.

Naruto had made his exit from the hospital quicker than he had thought as he had found himself on one of the main streets of Konoha, mindlessly wandering about. His thoughts were mostly pre-occupied with the scene he had seen in the hospital.

As he thought about what had happened, a small smirk came to his lips, 'One of the hallmarks of a good leader is knowing when one is defeated. Stubbornly carrying on in search of victory can only lead to unnecessary casualties.' He thought. That was one of the extracts he remembered from the book the Nidaime had wrote.

The blonde had identified that extract to his current predicament. Naruto knew he was stubborn, sometimes infuriatingly so to others. But being stubborn didn't make much of a good leader according to the Nidaime. And many other books he had read.

All in all, it was simply time to let go. Sakura was never going to like him that way just as Jiraiya had said. And just like the Toad Sage had told him, he should just move on.

But that didn't mean the girl wouldn't hold something of a spot in his heart.

"Naruto!"

The blonde stopped in his sulking and turned around to face who had called him, "Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka blinked as he looked Naruto over, "Wow. It really is you." The scarred chuunin remarked when he saw the blonde face as he walked over to him, "I almost didn't recognise you without your tracksuit."

Naruto laughed sheepishly, "Yeah. I thought with the promotion and all I should change my attire." Well, that would explain why he wasn't getting the usual looks from the villagers by the looks of it. Apparently, without the orange, they just saw a blonde kid. Nothing more.

He should have done this ages ago.

Iruka smiled at him as he gave him a once over again, "I just can't believe it. You, a chuunin."

Naruto eyed the man, "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing." Iruka said with a shake of the head, "Nothing at all. It's just I'm surprised that's all. But then again, you're the number one surprising ninja of Konoha aren't you?"

Naruto gave the man a large grin, "Damn right I am!"

Iruka clapped his hands together, "You know what? Why don't I treat you to some ramen for your promotion?"

Iruka was answered by being quickly dragged through the streets by Naruto in the direction of his favourite ramen stand. The older chuunin could only shake his head in amusement.

"Welcome!" Ayame, the daughter of the chef of the stand greeted, before taking a good look at the two patrons who had entered their stand, "...Naruto? Is that you?"

Naruto sat down on a stool with a dry expression, "Yes its me. And yes, I'm not wearing orange. Is it that much of a surprise?"

Ayame laughed sheepishly as she looked at him, "Well...yes. I mean, I'm used to seeing you in orange." She laughed at the sour expression Naruto had on his face before looking at him, "So what will you have?"

Naruto hummed in thought, "Since Iruka-sensei is paying…" At that moment, Iruka wondered if he should have set a limit to how much he was willing to spend on the blonde, "I'll start of with one of everything." Yeah...he should have set a limit of expenditure on the blonde.

Ayame giggled at seeing the expression on Iruka's face, "And what will you have?"

Iruka just looked down in depression, "...Just give me the cheapest thing you have on the menu."

Ayame snapped her notebook shut and headed for the back, "You got it!"

"I regret this already." The senior chuunin muttered as he looked at the grinning face of Naruto. His face then softened into a smile, "So how's being a chuunin?"

Naruto hummed in thought, "I don't know actually. I've only had one mission as a chuunin." And that mission was apparently now designated as an S-class mission thus he couldn't share the details with people.

Although having an S-class mission in his record book as nothing more than a rookie chuunin made Naruto feel with pride. The fact that he couldn't go brag about it from the top of the Hokage Monument irked him.

Iruka laughed, "Well, don't worry about that. I'm sure you will have a ton of missions in the future. You can count on it." Naruto suspiciously at Iruka. The older chuunin definitely knew something the blonde didn't, "The life of a rookie chuunin is tough."

Naruto smirked defiantly, "Well, it can be as tough as it could be, I'll handle it!" The blonde declared as a bowl of ramen was placed in front of him by Ayame. He happily dug in, "So what's happened in Konoha? I haven't been here for nearly a month."

Iruka hummed in thought, "Well, apart from you, someone else from your generation got promoted to chuunin."

Naruto didn't look up as he continued to dig in, "Really, who got promoted?" He snapped his head to face Iruka, "It wasn't Sasuke-teme was it?" Cos if it was, that would really blow. Even though he now liked to think that he was better than the rivalry he had with Sasuke, the fact that he could now order Sasuke around was as sweet as nectar.

Iruka laughed, "No, it wasn't Sasuke. It was Shikamaru actually."

Naruto stopped eating and just looked at Iruka, "You're joking right? Shikamaru?" He questioned, "_Shikamaru?_" He repeated for extra emphasis.

Iruka nodded in mild amusement, "Yes Shikamaru. The very same Shikamaru that came second to last." It was sort of amusing to the chuunin that probably the two worst students he had ever taught had been promoted to chuunin before their academic superiors.

Well...at least he had something to lord over the other teachers at the Academy.

How many of them could say their bottom two students got promoted to chuunin on their first try?

"Why did he get promoted?" Naruto questioned. Someone else from his class getting promoted ruined everything...whatever everything was, "I mean, he didn't even _win_ his match. He forfeited." And he also failed to mention that Shikamaru had helped them out big time when they were chasing after Sasuke and Gaara.

Iruka looked at him, "Don't you remember what Hokage-sama said? It doesn't matter if one wins or loses. If you had showed enough skills as a chuunin, then you had a chance at promotion."

"...But he _forfeited_."

Iruka laughed, "He did, but he showed during his match that he was tactically aware. And a chuunin needs to be tactically aware."

Naruto groaned. He knew that much. Every book about leadership as a shinobi pretty much stressed that you had to have some tactical awareness. Naruto liked to think he was. Just with himself.

He had yet to find out if he was or could be tactically aware enough whilst leading other people.

He doubted other people thought the same way himself and his clones thought.

The former teacher and student continued talking and eating until Naruto had decided to spare the man's wallet before parting ways. Naruto looked at the sky and noticed it was nearing dusk.

'Argh, might as well get it over with.' He mentally groaned as he made his way towards the hospital. This wasn't the time to let his emotions rule him. His teammate was in hospital and he had walked out because he couldn't deal with what he was seeing.

That was lame. Really lame.

He was a man wasn't he? A man faced his problems head on with a fist full of kickass. And that's what he was going to do.

XxX

When Naruto walked into Sasuke's room, he immediately noticed something was off. There was a heavy atmosphere in the air. Sasuke still sat on the bed whilst looking out of the window, staring at something. Sakura stood beside the bed, standing in a demure manner.

And for some reason, there were peeled apples scattered all over the floor, 'Did Sakura-chan drop them or something?' Sakura wasn't that careless was she? Especially in front of Sasuke. She always made sure to made sure to make herself look as alluring as possible to the dark haired, self-described avenger.

Sasuke sensed a new presence in the room, a presence that he had gotten familiar with over the past six months. He turned his head and sure enough, there stood Naruto, although surprisingly enough, he wasn't sporting that ridiculous get-up of his.

The moment he looked at Naruto, memories of him fighting Gaara and defeating him flashed to his mind. Itachi ignoring and casting him aside for Naruto. All those feelings came to the surface as he glared darkly at Naruto.

Naruto was rather startled by the glare Sasuke had levelled on him, "W-What?" He managed to settle himself. Getting startled by a simple glare wasn't befitting a chunin like him, "Why are you glaring at me for?"

Sakura noticed the glare and was scared by how rather dark it was. Sasuke's head lowered, "Hey Naruto…" The Uchiha scion said slowly, with a dark tone to his voice, "Fight me...now." He more or less demanded.

Naruto blinked in surprise, "What?" He asked as if he didn't hear what had been asked of him, "Are you stupid? You're still recovering."

That wasn't the answer Sasuke wanted to hear. In his anger, his Sharingan automatically activated, "Shut up and fight me!" He demanded once more as he stared straight at Naruto.

Naruto and Sakura were taken back by the demand. Sakura looked on in worry at her crush.

"You thought you helped me?" Sasuke started lowly, "That foolish Godaime Hokage or whatever butting into other people's business…" He said in a derisive tone.

Naruto blinked before quickly connecting who Sasuke was talking about and immediately went on the defensive. He be damned if he allowed his master be ridiculed by some teenager with too many anger issues, "Hey! Watch your mouth!"

"Make me!" Sasuke said as he got out of his bed and walked towards Naruto before stopping and staring him off, "Like you could anyway." He finished with a taunt.

Sasuke knew Naruto. From his time in the Academy and spending six months with him, he had come to the simple conclusion that Naruto was a simple creature. He was someone who desired attention. That was one of the reasons Sasuke had figured Naruto had chosen him as a rival. Because by beating him, Naruto would get the attention he always lacked. Whether it be good or bad, he didn't care.

Then there was also the other thing. Naruto was probably one of the most emotionally stunted people he had ever met. He didn't hide anything, he always wore his emotions on his sleeves. Anyone could read him from just the way he acted or expressed. And then their was the fact that the slightest things could set him off.

He was ruled by his emotions.

He was simple like that.

What he didn't expect was for Naruto to glare at him and not even react to his taunt, "I'm not going to fight you Sasuke." Unfortunately for Sasuke, Naruto had changed. He wasn't the same as he used to be.

"What?"

"I'm not going to fight you."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed in anger as he grit his teeth, "Why? Wasn't it your dream to beat me in a fight?"

Naruto shook his head, "_Was_. Past tense. I'm not the same idiot that you knew a month ago. I'm different now. I like to think I've grown a little for the better."

Naruto wasn't going to fight Sasuke. No matter how much the Uchiha taunted him, he wasn't going to fight him. Reacting to the taunt would have shown that he was still a hothead.

Ever since he became a chunin, he had been working on that aspect of his. He had been meditating as Jiraiya had suggested to reign in his emotions. Everything the Sandaime had told him to read said the same thing, if he didn't learn to control his emotions in the field, something bad would probably happen.

Naruto was a chunin now. And that meant responsibilities. Fighting against a recovering hospital patient who was _still_ hospitalised didn't show any ounce of maturity or responsibility.

The Sandaime had gone above and beyond to make sure he was promoted even though the panel thought he was unfit for a promotion. By fighting Sasuke, he would be proving them right, that he wasn't fit to be a chunin.

And Naruto didn't like proving people with negative perceptions about him that they were right.

Instead, he absolutely loved to do the exact opposite.

Naruto turned his back and headed for the door, "Get back in your bed Sasuke. I'm not here to deal with whatever inadequacies you might be feeling right now." Even though the situation was serious, Naruto couldn't help but give a mental victory pump at using the word 'Inadequacies'. That just showed that his vocabulary was expanding. And that was just down right fantastic.

Ha! Just wait till he saw Ino again. Call him dumb would she? Just wait till they saw each other again, the real dumb one would be revealed.

Sasuke watched as Naruto turned his back on him and walk away. His surprise turned to anger, "Don't turn your back on me…" He said lowly in a harsh manner, "Don't turn your back on me you pissant!" He roared at the blonde, getting Sakura to yelp out in fright.

Naruto stopped walking on the other side of the door, "I just did." He finished with a slam of the door as he walked away.

XxX

Outside Sasuke's room, standing on beside Sasuke's window, Hatake Kakashi sighed as he heard the interaction between his two male students. He looked up into the sky that was being tinted orange by the slowly setting sun.

This wasn't good.

This wasn't good in the slightest.

That entire short interaction between them had all but destroyed whatever teamwork dynamics his team had managed to achieve when they had formed. He shuddered to think what would happen if Sasuke learned of Naruto's promotion.

His inferiority complex had already reared its ugly head just then. What would happen if he learned that the 'dobe' as he affectionately referred Naruto, now had the power to order him around on the field?

Nothing good that was for sure.

And that wasn't including his superiority complex to.

"Damn…" If only Sasuke hadn't known that Itachi had appeared in the village and had gone after Naruto. Things could have been different. He didn't know how different, but they could have been different nonetheless.

He scratched his head as he tried to ignore the niggling thought at the back of his head, Team 7 was all but destroyed.

Now what could he do?

* * *

**AN: I think I might have bashed Sasuke a bit during that little scene. I don't know, I was trying to portray him as the angst-y character he is. Anyway, this story will follow some canon events and some non-canon events and some original stuff.**

**Doesn't that sound wonderful?**

**Ah yeah, sorry about the short chapter. They'll be longer in future chapters. I just thought it would be perfect to end this one on where it did.**

**Leave a review!**

**See ya!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

It had been around four days since his confrontation with Sasuke in the hospital. Naruto, although he thought it was something of a cowardly act, had decided that it was probably best to avoid Sasuke until he and himself had cooled down.

It had taken all his willpower to walk out of that room and slam that door shut.

As far as Naruto was concerned, the moment he had insulted Jiraiya, the gloves had been thrown, well Sasuke's had been thrown. Naruto had decided not to throw his own.

During those four days of hiding, Naruto was somewhat surprised when no summons for his team for missions had been sent. He soon learned from Iruka that this was mostly because every able ninja of above chunin was being used to meet the mission requests that were being sent to the village.

Even though they had lost ninja in the Crash. Konoha couldn't turn away missions, that would be showing the other villages that they were weak. A balance had to be maintained. If that balance wasn't maintained, some opportunistic village might try something and that something could cause a domino effect that might result in war.

Something nobody wanted.

Iruka had even told him to expect to be summoned for a mission sometime soon. Taking the advice from his former sensei, Naruto had made sure everything was up to stock in case he was called for and had continued to improve his skills some more.

He liked to think he had improved quite a bit over the past month from when he was genin. He was going to have to find the Sandaime and threaten his air supply once more for promoting him. He doubted to think he would have decided to change himself for the better if he hadn't been promoted.

In the present, Naruto could be found walking towards Hokage from one of the training grounds. It was midday and he was in need of lunch after having woken up at the crack of dawn to do some training.

Now that he thought about it, this was probably the hardest he had ever trained in anything in his ninja career. Wow, that little show of introspectiveness showed just how badly he had been screwing up.

Sure, he had improved by leaps and bounds when he was part of Team 7, but Kakashi's rather lackadaisical sense of teaching had eventually stalled him. It wasn't until Jiraiya had taken him that he improved somewhat once more.

But that was only recently. Jiraiya had only taught him the Kuchiyose no Jutsu at first to serve as something of a thing to have when he was in a desperate situation. It would have been better for Jiraiya to just teach him the Rasengan instead.

Naruto then stopped and thought about it, 'But if I hadn't learned the Kuchiyose, I would have been screwed fighting against Gaara's giant sand...thingy.' He either couldn't remember or recognise whatever creature Gaara's sand had taken form off. it sort of looked like a dog, 'I think it was a dog.' He surmised.

Who cared what creature it was anyway? Certainly not him. All he cared was that he managed to kick its ass. Technically, him and Gamabunta had kicked its ass, but that was a technicality, no-one paid attention to technicalities. Ever.

The blonde then resumed walking at the prompting of his stomach and continued walking along the path. He turned his head to the side when he heard the sound of rushing water and noticed he was passing by the Third Training Ground.

A wave of nostalgia hit him when he saw the log posts in the middle of the field. He chuckled to himself silently when he remembered being tied to the middle post.

Deciding to take a trip along memory lane, the blonde ignored his stomach and walked towards the Memorial Stone. The place where, probably, Kakashi's most important lesson took place.

It was a rather short walk along the stream that ran parallel to the training ground before finding himself coming closer to the large, black kunai shaped structure, and engraved on it, all the shinobi that had died in service.

As Naruto got closer, he noticed that there was someone else there. He was still too far away to make out details, but close enough to tell that the person was a female. Easy enough to spot as she wore a summer dress and her long purple hair swayed in the cool summer breeze.

Naruto stopped. Now he was conflicted on what to do. He was an orphan and thus he didn't have any family he knew off. He just couldn't go to the memorial stone and just stand there to reminisce about old times.

...But then again, his parents could have been shinobi who had died during the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha nearly fourteen years ago. That was a good enough reason to hang around there wasn't it?

Yes, yes it was. And he also wanted to share his respects to his fellow, fallen shinobi.

Making up his mind, the blonde resumed walking in the direction towards the stone. As he got closer, he wondered if the stone had gotten bigger or he had shrunk as it seem bigger than he had seen it before.

It wasn't until he was close enough that he guessed why, 'There's a lot more names on it than I remember.' He solemnly thought. They probably, definitely belonged to the ninja that had died during the Konoha Crash.

He wasn't aware of the details such as the casualty rates, but Iruka had told him that they had lost a substantial amount of ninjas. The surprise attack had caught them unawares on all fronts.

From what he could tell, the fact that his spy network hadn't picked up the invasion before it had happened, that had personally peeved Jiraiya off. During the month they travelled, he would grumble about 'kicking ass, firing some asses and kicking some more ass' whenever the subject came up or was hinted.

"Hello."

The blonde was knocked out of his thoughts when he realised that he had arrived at the stone and was now standing next to the woman. He grumbled to himself over the fact that she was taller than him, but picked himself up by noting he was still young and his growth spurt was just taking its sweet time before hitting him.

Upon closer inspection, the woman had dark brown eyes, fair skin tone and wore a shade of red lipstick on her lips. The young blonde guessed that she was probably several years older than himself.

Even though she was smiling lightly at Naruto, the blonde was more than perceptive enough to tell that she was suffering. From what, he didn't know.

"Hi." The blonde returned the greeting with a smile of his own, "I hope I didn't disturb you."

She shook her head, "No. It's fine. This is a public place, you can come and go as you please."

Naruto laughed lightly somewhat in a sheepish manner, "Yeah, I guess that's true."

Silence enveloped the two as they continued to stand at the Memorial Stone. Being someone who was normally loud and brash, the silence eventually started to irk Naruto the longer it went on.

But he wasn't going to fall into old habits that easily. He managed to fight off any need to strike a conversation with the woman beside him. It was obvious that she was here to pay her respects to someone dear to her based on the sombre expression that was plastered on her delicate features.

Instead of being rude, he was just glad the woman didn't cast him a dirty look or try to shoo him away. Even though they had only shared a small and short conversation, Naruto had put her in the good list for not doing any of that.

Then again, she might have been too sad to notice who he was or not recognise him due to the change in attire. It was probably best to hold on before putting her in any sort of list.

"Whoever you're here to see must have been dear to you." Apparently, Naruto's mouth had a will of its own or took orders from something else that wasn't his brain. Because sooner than he had suppressed another urge to strike a conversation, he had opened his stupid mouth.

The woman smiled lightly as she continued to look at the Stone. Naruto couldn't tell where her gaze was fixed on, therefore he couldn't tell which name she was staring at, "Yes…" She said quietly, "He was a close friend of mine."

The tone in which she said that conveyed that whoever 'He' was, he was more than a 'close friend'. She spoke of him like one would speak of their lover. Not that Naruto would know, he was just guessing here.

Naruto smiled, "Whoever he was, he was lucky to have you in his life." Argh, was he really trying to hit on a woman at a memorial site while she was there to mourn her other half?

That should have been his thoughts, but Naruto being rather clueless to how his sentence could be taken didn't realise what he had just said. Lucky for him, the woman merely looked glanced at him with a slightly quirked eyebrow before answering, "More like I was the lucky one."

"Eh don't say that. I'm sure someone like you could get anyone they want." The blonde said after hearing her answer before widening his eyes and shaking his hands hysterically, "Actually, forget I just said that. That was stupid and insensitive." To tell a woman who was currently in mourning of her lover to jump back into the dating scene was rather insensitive.

Even worse for the blonde, he didn't know how long her lover had been dead for. For all he knew, he could have died just more than a month ago during the Invasion.

If only he knew.

"It's alright Uzumaki-san." The woman said, surprising Naruto that she knew his name, "I'm sure you didn't mean it." She was sure he didn't mean it. From what she had observed, the young blonde was a kind hearted and was never one to deliberate go out to hurt someone's feelings.

Unless you were the unlucky target for one of his pranks. But that was neither here or there.

Naruto looked at the woman, "How do you know my name?" He queried. Maybe he had been wrong. Maybe the woman had recognised him. And the fact that she had yet to act on some perceived slight against her from him, meant she was already going into the good list.

That question brought a slight smirk of amusement on the woman's face, "You're rather famous among my co-workers." Co-workers that had been repeatedly deployed to take him down when he caused some sort of wide-scale village prank.

Naruto quietly laughed rather bashfully at hearing he was famous with whoever this woman's co-workers were. They were probably ninja. Yeah...definitely ninja. Ninja in the past that he had slipped by whilst they were chasing him.

He hoped the person who she came to see wasn't one of those ninja that he routinely embarrassed by evading when he was a kid.

"Well, you know my name but I don't know yours." Naruto said after reigning in his quiet laughter after a while.

A frown quickly marred the woman's face before disappearing before Naruto could register it, her training kicking in. Should she tell him her name? Well...there was actually no security risk to her telling him her name. He didn't even know that she was ANBU. As far as he was concerned, she was just someone he had met at the Memorial Stone mourning her dead lover.

"You can call me Yugao." She finally said, giving the blonde her name.

"Yugao huh?" Naruto repeated as he seemingly tasted the name in his mouth, "That's a pretty name."

Yugao smiled lightly, "Thank you, it means 'Moon-flower'." She laughed lightly, "I sometimes find it amusing that it identifies with my favourite hobby." She didn't know why she was willing to talk so much with the blonde, after all, they had only met just a several minutes ago.

"Really? What's your favourite hobby?"

"Moon watching."

"Must be some sort of cosmic pun."

Funny, Hayate had once said something similar, "Yeah, I guess it is."

The two continued to stand by the memorial in silence for a while longer, occasionally making small conversation between the two of them. Eventually, Naruto realised he couldn't ignore his stomach any longer and parted ways with Yugao, who had also decided to leave. She also had her duties to return to.

XxX

Naruto made quick time towards his favourite food stand, and noticing the lunch hour traffic on the streets of Konoha, took flight to the rooftops of the Hidden Village. Not long since he did that, he immediately jumped off the rooftops to land acrobatically in front of the Ichiraku Ramen stand.

"Hey Teuchi-oji-san!" Naruto loudly greeted as he parted the cloth that served as the entrance to the stand, "Guess who's-."

"Damn Naruto. Do you have to be so loud?" A voice cried out before being followed the bark of a dog.

"Huh?" Naruto let out as he looked at the other patrons of the stand, "Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Kurenai-sensei, what are you guys doing here?" He asked as he saw the members of Team 8.

"Eating of course." The tall frame of Shino stated in his usual taciturn manner, "What else could we be doing?"

Naruto just cast the taller genin a dry stare as he took a seat beside Kiba, "Oh shut up Shino."

Kiba looked at Naruto before a grin came to his face, "Hey Hinata, look who's here." He said as he pulled in Naruto by hooking an arm over him, "Why don't you say hi?"

Said lavender eyed girl turned red at the sight of Naruto and tried even harder to hide deeper into over-sized jacket, "H-Hello N-Naruto-kun." She stammered out. She was rather impressed with herself on that. On most occasions, she would have fainted with Naruto so close to her as he was right now.

Kurenai extended a hand and flicked Kiba on the head, "Stop teasing Hinata, Kiba. You wouldn't like it if it was reverse."

Kiba's grin just got wider, "Who say's Hinata isn't liking it Kurenai-sensei?"

Naruto finally managed to free himself of Kiba's grip after some struggle, "Dammit Kiba. Ever heard of a thing called a bath? Why don't you take it some time, you smell like dog." The blonde said with a sour look on his face, "But then again, you'll smell like wet dog afterwards." He joked as he took on a vulpine grin.

Kiba and his canine partner Akamaru immediately took offence at what had just been said and snapped their heads towards Naruto and glared at him, "What did you say you runt? You want me to kick your ass? It's about time I got that win back."

Naruto wagged his finger in front of Kiba with a victorious smirk, "Uh uh Kiba. You can't do that."

Kiba was already cracking his knuckles, "Oh yeah, why?"

Naruto just grinned wider, "Cause I'll just get you for striking a superior."

Kiba looked at him with a blank look, "What are you talking about?" He questioned. Naruto eagerly helped out by pointing to the vest he was wearing. As soon as he saw the vest, Kiba's face took one of shock before turning into horror, "No…" He quietly breathed out.

"Yes…" Naruto said, grin still in place.

Kiba was still in denial, "_You?_ You got _promoted?_" He questioned, "First Shikamaru, now you? Are they promoting all the losers or something?"

"That is an illogical assumption Kiba-san." Shino's dull, monotonous voice chimed in from the side, "If they were promoting losers, wouldn't you also have been promoted?"

Everyone stopped at that to just look at Shino. Even Kurenai stopped eating her food to look at her Aburame student. Surprisingly, it was Hinata who voiced their thoughts, "D-Did Shino-kun, j-just make a joke?"

Kurenai's hair slightly swept up and down as she nodded her head, "I think he did."

Kiba got over his shock and growled at the Aburame, "Hey! You're supposed to be my teammate here!" He yelled at him whilst Naruto ordered his food, "You don't make jokes against me!"

"You make jokes about me." Shino duly pointed out, "I believe if you can make jokes about me, then you are also 'fair game' as the saying goes."

Akamaru barked from inside Kiba's jacket, "Don't agree with him Akamaru! Who's side are you on anyway?" Akamaru barked again, "Oh be quiet."

Hinata looked at Naruto as he consumed his order with minimal ease. He had only been there for a couple of minutes but he was already on his third bowl. She didn't know whether to be horrified or intrigued by how fast he was eating.

"C-Congratulations on your promotion Naruto-kun." She stammered out softly, 'Stupid, he probably didn't hear me.' She berated herself.

"Thanks Hinata." She let out a soft yelp of surprise when she heard that. And then her face went all red when she saw Naruto looking at her. She struggled to say something, but Naruto beat her to it, "Hey Hinata, are you sick? Your face is red." The blonde questioned, worried about the well being of his fellow Konoha shinobi, "You should see a doctor. You get sick a lot." He said as he closed the distance between them, "Let me take your temperature."

The moment she could feel his breath upon her skin was more than she could take as she nearly fell of her stool as she fainted, but was quickly caught by Kurenai. The older woman sighed as she got up from her seat and carried Hinata, "I better take her back." She said amidst Kiba's sniggering, "It was nice meeting you Naruto. Congratulations on your promotion. Take it from me, you surprised a lot of people when you got it." She said as she left the stand in a shunshin.

Naruto resettled himself in his seat as he scratched his chin in thought, "Why does Hinata always faint anyway? Does she have some sort of illness?"

Kiba couldn't control himself any longer as he burst out into fits of laughter. Beside him, a slight buzzing sound could be heard from Shino, that probably showed his amusement at the scene. Probably. No-one knew with him.

Ayame giggled from the other side of the counter, "Oh you're so hopeless Naruto-kun."

Naruto looked around in confusion to face Ayame, "Hopeless? Hopeless about what?"

Ayame ruffled his hair with an amused smile on her lips, "That's for you to find out."

Naruto grumbled as he dug into his meal once more. There was something he wasn't getting here. Like some sort of cosmic joke against him. And he didn't like it. He already had enough to deal with, with the fact he had a furry ball of living hate and anger sealed inside him.

He stopped eating and looked towards Akamaru when he heard the sound of animalistic growling from somewhere. He only blinked when he saw Akamaru eating his share of food. Naruto shrugged and went back to his own food, 'Great, now I'm hearing things.'

Kiba eventually got himself together before returning to his own food, "But seriously though Naruto, I'm going to actually get my wins back one of these days."

Naruto snorted, "You can try, but I promise you, it's not going to be worth it. I've been training real hard." He finished as he flexed his biceps and patted them with his other hand.

Kiba took on a challenging grin, "You aren't the only one who's been training you know? Just you wait, me and Akamaru are going to kick your ass."

"I will also be looking to spar with you sometime Naruto. I want to see how much I have improved since the Exams." Shino chimed in from the side.

"Yeah?" Kiba said as he looked at Shino, "Well get in line."

Naruto chuckled, "You can try, but you're all going to fail anyway." The blonde stopped before blinking in realisation, "Actually, there's one person in front of you that wants to fight me. I should go see her sometime."

"Her?" Kiba repeated as he looked at Naruto, "Is there something you're not sharing with me Naruto?"

Naruto completely and utterly missed what Kiba was implying, "Uh, I don't think so. It's just someone who wants to have a spar with me."

Kiba sweatdropped before shaking his head, "Sometimes you're so clueless that it's not even funny. Nice threads by the way. Much better than that orange track suit of yours." He added as an after thought.

Naruto ignored the slight at his old clothes. He realised he was going to be receiving a lot of them no matter where he went, "Thanks. I'm hoping your sister will like them too when she accepts my offer for a date."

Kiba snapped his head so fast to level Naruto with a feral glare that the blonde had thought he had broken his neck, "Don't _talk_ about Hana like that!" Kiba might have acted all tough and was quite tough himself. But the one thing that always got to him was his sister. He had something of a sister complex, "I swear, you even look at her, I'll personally claw your eyes out."

Naruto just grinned, "What if she looks at me?"

"Ha!" Kiba barked out in total amusement. Which was echoed by Akamaru, "Like she would ever be interested in a midget like you. I would pay top money to even see her make-out with you."

"Top money you say…" Naruto muttered as he rubbed his chin. A gauntlet had just been thrown. And Naruto intended to match this gauntlet one way or another.

XxX

Naruto travelled through Konoha's streets ignoring the looks he was getting, which were far and inbetween. It was just after lunch and everyone with a day job had gone back to their work places and thus the streets were rather sparse.

After navigating the numerous streets of Konoha, the finally saw the familiar bland, non-descript exterior that he had come to know a little more than a month ago. The blonde grinned as he headed inside.

XxX

Tenten sighed as she did what was becoming quite horrifyingly repetitive, seating behind the counter with a magazine in her hand. And to make things worse, her magazine options were starting to get rather sparse.

All the magazines she subscribed to where monthly releases. If she didn't get any soon, she might be forced to start reading gossip magazines. And she would rather bleed from every visible orifice than do that.

And she hadn't even had the chance to go see Tsunade when she had returned to the village like many others. Now that she was Hokage, she could probably see her and probably embarrass herself when they went to take a mission, but that seemed to be in the distant future.

Neji was of training and being introspective somewhere. He had been doing that ever since the Exams. Lee was still in the hospital with Gai fretting over him. She had heard that nurses had caught him training in one of the yards with his injuries.

Whenever she questioned Gai about the true extent of his injuries, the taijutsu expert would only deflect or dodge the questions. There was something that was being hidden from her and Neji about Lee. Whatever it was, she was sure Tsunade would be able to heal her teammate.

The bell that signified a customer rang out and Tenten saved her page and lowered her magazine, "Welcome to-Naruto?" She said when she noticed the blonde.

Naruto raised a hand in greeting accompanied by a grin, "Hi Tenten. What's up?" He asked as he came to a halt on the other side of the counter.

"Nothing much as you can see." Tenten said as she motioned around the empty shop, "Today's been a slow day. Like usual. So what are you doing here?"

Naruto shrugged, "Nothing much really." The blonde said as he looked around, "I actually came here to ask if you want to get that spar you offered me from before."

Tenten blinked before grinning, "If it wasn't bad for my image, I would kiss you right now!" She said before turning and disappearing into the back of the shop. She completely missed the red flush that came to Naruto's face from her comment.

"What image?" He silently squawked out before controlling himself. He shouldn't be easily getting flustered over something like that. For crying out loud, his mentor was the biggest pervert in the world.

Not long afterwards, Tenten came returned to the front of the shop, slipping her two weapon scrolls into their pouch, "Come on then." She said as she jumped over the counter and headed for the door.

Naruto followed after her and couldn't help himself when his eyes lowered below the waistline, 'Not ba-Gah! Damn you ero-sennin!'

XxX

"Alright, so what are the rules?" Naruto questioned. Naruto and Tenten stood in a free training ground several feet away from each other, facing each other.

Tenten hummed in thought, "Obviously no killing or debilitating shots, anything else if just fine."

Naruto smirked at her as he unsheathed his tanto, "And here I thought you would just limit it to a sword fight."

Tenten returned the smirk as she looked at him, "I at least wanted to give you a chance. Chunin or not, I'm better than you with weapons."

She had been rather surprised when she learned that the entire reason he had gotten rid of his orange jumpsuit was because it didn't 'Look awesome with his flak jacket'. Knowing that the blonde kid she had previously looked down on had beaten her to a promotion and her being his sempai was slightly disheartening.

After this was done, she was going to go find Neji or Gai and get some training in. When the next exams rolled round, she was going to make sure she made chunin.

The two teenagers stared at each. A sudden gust of wind swept through the area and when it stopped, that was the unspoken signal for each to begin.

Naruto surprised Tenten with the speed he moved towards her, 'He's certainly been training.' But she had been dealing with fast people since the day she was made genin. She could keep up.

She quickly unsealed a bundle of shuriken and hurled them at Naruto. The way she threw them meant Naruto had to come to a halt to effectively block them with his duel wielded tanto.

That was all she needed before she started unleashing a barrage of projectiles that included all forms of throwing weapons at the blonde, "Hey!" Naruto cried as he zig-zagged around the training field blocking any and all projectiles that came close to hitting him, "What happened to no killing?"

"I'm not aiming to kill." Tenten cooly replied with a smirk on her face, "I'm aiming to take down."

Naruto kissed his teeth as he made way towards the surrounding forestry. The trees would provide good cover, "Fine, if that's how you want to play it." He dived into the foliage and Tenten stopped her bombardment.

She waited for any indication before from the shadows of the forest, a multitude of yellow and black blurs rushed towards her. The oriental-themed girl widened her eyes at seeing the numbers she was facing and immediately started throwing again.

She now couldn't really careless if she hit the real one. She would rather not think what would happen if she found herself attacked by all those clones.

She let out a huff, taking down the clones was much tougher than she had thought. She would hit some with her attacks. Out of all the ninjas of her generation, she was second to none when it came to marksmanship. But that still left the rest that were lucky enough to block her attacks.

Deciding it was time to stop holding back, Tenten unraveled her scrolls upwards as they emitted smoke and jumped inbetween, "Soushouryuu (Twin Rising Dragons)."

The clones came to a halt as their eyes slowly widened. They remembered this. Wasn't this the jutsu where she started raining all sorts of metallic hell on the unlucky bugger who was her target? In their case them.

Just like they thought, Tenten began to mercilessly bombard them with any weapon her scroll unsealed. The majority of the clones were cut down due to the shock that was caused when they realised the jutsu.

The rest were smart enough to go through hand seals for jutsu, "Futon: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)!" They released gales of winds that pushed back the weapons, causing them to harmlessly fall to the ground or some rare case, hit an unsuspecting clone.

Tenten looked down with a twitching eyebrow as she felt the breeze, "Oh you gotta be kidding me!" She vented, "First that Suna girl, now you? That's cheating!" She yelled as she cancelled her jutsu and fell to the ground with two katanas in her hands.

The clones gave her confused looks, "I didn't see any rulebook about using Futon." One clone said before looking around, "Did anyone else?" It asked with an amused tone.

"Ha ha." Tenten let out dryly, "Now why don't you all come here and let me kick your asses?"

The clones grinned before rushing her, "The only ass getting kicked here is yours!" Although most would have preferred to spank it. Fucking Jiraiya…

When the remaining clones met Tenten in close quarters combat, two facts materialised themselves. The first was that they had only been practising kenjutsu for little more than a month now, they had even yet to reach the necessary mastery of all the katas in the scroll Tenten had given the original. Add in the fact that their duel wielding style was completely one of 'Making it up as you go along' school of kenjutsu.

Tenten on the other hand, whilst not a master of kenjutsu in the slightest. She was damn well more skilled than them in the use of swords. She merciless attacked any and all clones that neared her.

Between the two of them, their speed was somewhat equal with Tenten being slightly faster, but she was more flexible than Naruto and could dodge and parry with poise. After destroying another clone, Tenten sensed a presence behind her and quickly turned around with a backswing only for her blade to meet another blade.

"The original?" She queried as she looked at the one who stopped her attack.

"What do you think?" Naruto asked with a grin. With a heave, he unbalanced Tenten by pushing away her blade. That was another difference between them, Naruto was stronger than her, much stronger.

Seeing a chance, the blonde caught Tenten with a kick to the side. Tenten stumbled back but managed to catch herself before glaring at Naruto, "Okay, you got lucky there _Naru-chan_." She taunted.

An eyebrow ticked on Naruto's face, "Oh you're going to pay for that _Panda-ko_."

The two glared at each other before rushing each other and soon meeting each other in a frenzy of blade strokes. Once more, Naruto's inexperience with his desired weapon of choice showed with visible cuts on his face and clothes.

Tenten was making sure that when she made contact, she would never go for anything that might seriously wound him.

Whilst he maybe losing the fight with the blades, Naruto had managed to score some hits himself by playing on his creative brilliance when it came to fighting. Tenten had scattered the majority of the area they were in with the weapons she had hurled at the Naruto clones.

Naruto, using his unusual way of attack and his strength, corralled Tenten towards the field of weapons. Tenten had no choice but to be forced back by Naruto as she couldn't win a contest of strength.

When she had gotten in near one of the weapons, a discarded chakram, the weapon suddenly erupted into smoke before a clone revealed itself, "What?" The bun-haired girl let out in shock as she found herself grabbed by the clone and hurled through the air.

Tenten flew through the air before crashing into the ground and rolling for a few feet before being besieged once more by Naruto, "That was dirty!" She complained as she traded steel with him.

"We're ninja," Naruto deadpanned, "Not samurai."

XxX

Hidden in the shadows of the forest a cat-masked ANBU watched the spar between the two teens with rapt attention. Their swordwork wasn't...bad. The girl was obviously better, had more skill and talent than the boy. But the boy had his resilience, unpredictiveness and creativity to make-up for it.

She would have loved to see how the fight would have ended out, but she had a job to do. She timed her appearance by appearing between the two when they had separated, "Uzumaki-san, the Godaime calls for you."

Tenten and Naruto were startled by the sudden appearance of an ANBU in the middle of their spar. Naruto managed to get himself together before nodding, "Ah thanks Neko-san. I'll be right there." The ANBU gave a slight nod before leaving in a swirl of leaves, "Strange, I think I know her." Naruto mused.

Tenten raised an eyebrow, "How could you know an ANBU member? Their identities are top secret."

Naruto shrugged, "I didn't say I_ know_ her. I said I _think_ I know her." The blonde corrected as he sheathed his tanto, "Anyway, duty calls. See ya Panda-ko!" He finished with a teasing grin as he left in a shunshin of his own.

Tenten blinked as she watched the leaves fall to the floor, "He knows Shunshin? So unfair." She whined before looking around the landscape, "Sometimes...I hate being a weapon specialist." She mumbled as she moved to pick up the weapons she had used.

She then remembered that one of her weapons had turned into Naruto and wondered if any where Naruto clones. If they were, that meant that she could ask them to help her pick up her weapons.

Before she could voice her question, she saw several weapons go up in smoke and disappear, "...Just you wait _Naru-chan_."

XxX

"You called for me baa-chan?" Were the words Naruto managed to get out before being nailed straight in the head by a paperweight, "...Didn't hurt."

Tsunade smirked from the other side of her desk, "Sure it didn't."

Naruto closed the door behind him clutching his nose as he entered the room. That's when he noticed that the room was filled with several other people. In fact, it was quite filled to the point Naruto wondered how Tsunade had managed to nail him with the paperweight with all the obstacles in the room.

"What's going on?" The blonde asked as he looked around as he made his way towards the front. From what he could see, everyone here had a flak jacket, and therefore were definitely chunin. There was probably some jounin in here somewhere.

"I was about to explain brat." Tsunade coughed into her hand to get the attention of the assembled ninja in the room that had been quietly talking amongst themselves as they waited, "I guess you must all be wondering why I called you here."

Various nods went throughout the room, "I'm sure you're all aware of the mission surplus we've had since the Invasion?" Tsunade asked and received more nods, "Since we can't turn any of them down, the vast majority of you here have been worked to the bones so to speak. I would like to say you can now relax, but you can't. I've called everyone here for an A-rank mission."

"A-rank mission?" Naruto repeated, positively excited at the prospect. He had somehow forgotten that his last A-rank mission had resulted in him and his team facing off against Zabuza and his accomplice.

The blonde ignored the looks he was getting from the older ninja around him. Tsunade eyebrow twitched, "Yes brat, A-rank. Get your ears cleaned. In actual essence, the mission is a simple B-rank border patrol mission. Shut up Naruto." She quickly added when she saw the blonde's mouth give the slightest twitch, "It's A-rank because the border you will all be patrolling won't be Hi no Kuni's. It would Kaze no Kuni's."

Kaze no Kuni? That sounded somewhat familiar to Naruto. He had never paid that much attention during the geography lessons, "It's become something of common knowledge that of the Five Great Nations, Sunagakure had the smallest active shinobi force. And that number was reduced by a significant amount during the Invasion we repelled. This had led them lacking manpower in maintaining their borders."

Mutterings of 'Good riddance' and the likes floated through the room by many of the shinobi that had found themselves fighting against their supposed allies.

"Silence!" Tsunade gained control of the floor again, "I know many of you are reluctant, but if we don't help Suna maintain their borders, war might occur. I doubt any of you here want to fight in a war again so soon after the Invasion." Silence reigned in the room as that thought sank in, "Good. You will be expected to arrive at the rendezvous point four days from now. Your company commander will be Sarutobi Asuma."

At that point, the lazy looking jounin stepped forward and nodded before turning around to face the amassed ninja, "Alright, get yourself ready and meet at the main gate in an hour's time. Don't be late." He added as an afterthought.

The ninja in the room nodded before all left in a shunshin.

XxX

"Wow kid, you're early." Asuma remarked offhandedly as he came to a halt at the gate, "I was expecting you to have picked up your sensei's habit of arriving to everything at least several hours late."

It was still a good twenty minutes before everyone else had to appear. Even though Naruto wasn't really enthusiastic about doing a glorified border patrol mission, he was rather excited about doing his second mission as a chunin and also getting the chance to get out of the country again.

He hoped this time it wouldn't be a clusterfuck like Nami no Kuni again. Although he wouldn't deny a part of him wanted it to be like that.

Naruto looked at the older ninja with a dry expression, "That's not even funny."

Asuma chuckled, "I like to think it is." He dug into his pocket before pulling out a carton of cigarettes and a lighter, "So how you handling being a chunin? Not all that bad I hope." He asked as he lit a cigarette.

"It's not that bad." Naruto said as he shifted between the balls of his feet, "I haven't been doing much anyway. This is my second mission as chunin. I think I was given a rest day or something. How Shikamaru handling the promotion? I bet he he's finding it to be a total pain in the ass."

Asuma chuckled, "He definitely is. He's wondering if he could do something to get demoted. I think it was something about not being able to deal with the added responsibilities."

Naruto sweat dropped at that before shaking his head in dry amusement. He should have expected something like that from Shikamaru, "Is he on this mission?"

"Nah, he got himself another assignment." Asuma smirked down at the blonde, "You're the only tween in the whole company. You're representing your generation kid, no pressure."

"I'm not a _tween_." Naruto defended in an indignant manner. For some reason, he felt offended by the way he had just been described. And what the hell was a tween anyway? Was that even a word?

He was definitely not looking that up in a dictionary. It was too stupid sounding to be even a word.

Asuma raised his hands up in a defensive manner with a lazy grin on his face, "Calm down kid. I'm sorry for calling you a tween, when you're not a tween. Do you feel better now?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the jounin-sensei of Team 10 before huffing, "Fine."

"Great!" Asuma said with a grin, "For a second there, I thought I was going to have to buy you some milk and cookies. Maybe even sing you a bedtime lullaby to make it up to you."

Naruto just gave him the driest stare he could muster, "You're enjoying this aren't you Asuma-sensei?"

Still with the grin on his face, Asuma nodded, "Oh yeah. I have to get my kicks from somewhere." He blew out a plume of smoke, "And its Asuma-_taichou_ now gaki. None of that sensei stuff."

At that moment, several members of the mission appeared, "Ah, the others are coming now. Time to shape up gaki."

XxX

Due to the fact that everyone in the 20-something group was an active ninja, the moment that Asuma had done a head count, they had all immediately jumped to the tree tops. Naruto was located somewhere to the outer right flank of the formation of Konoha ninja.

There was several other ninjas near him, but the only one he recognised was none other than Kiba's sister Hana. How he had missed her during the mission briefing was beyond him.

"Seeing something you like Naruto?" Kiba's older sister asked with a teasing tone as she caught the blonde occasionally glancing at her.

What was not to like? Hana was hot. He and many other students during the Academy had come to that simple conclusion, much to Kiba's dismay, when they realised girls didn't carry cooties.

She had the standard hot body with all the right curves that was seemingly the norm among kunoichi. And her attire left little to the imagination. She wore a form-fitting custom flak jacket with the zipper undone enough to show cleavage and tight black pants.

"Eh no?" Naruto said unsurely. Just because he registered other girls as attractive did not mean that Uzumaki Naruto knew how to act around one. He was still in the midst of improving in that department.

Hana cast him a look that quickly made the blonde decide to change his mind, "Eh yes?"

Hana smiled at him as she nodded, "Yep, exactly! I was afraid I might have head to sick these boys on you." She said as she indicated towards her three ninken, the Haimaru brothers moving along the tree tops with her.

Naruto looked at the dogs and shuddered, he had a rather horrible memory that involved several Inuzuka dogs, "That would have been bad…"

Hana laughed as she waved him off, "Oh don't be silly. They don't bite." She said dismissively as they continued to jump from branch to branch, "They tear things to pieces."

Naruto stumbled when landed on a branch before correcting himself and taking off, "That doesn't help at all!" He complained with an indignant yell.

All Hana did was laugh him off. Messing with her little brother's friends had always been a favourite pastime of hers. It was intoxicating, "I'm joking," She said with an unyielding honest tone, "Or am I?"

Naruto just cast her a dry look, "Okay, I'm just going to ignore you now and-"

"-And stare at my butt-"

"-And stare at your butt. Wait, what? No! I won't stare at your butt!"

"Oh? What's wrong with it?" Hana asked in a dangerous tone, "Choose your words carefully."

"Nothing!" The young blonde squeaked out with a red face from the sudden way the topic had rolled into the realm of the perverted minds, "I mean, it's fantastic to look at-No wait-I-."

The sound of Hana's laughter stopped the blonde from having a nervous breakdown, "Calm down Naruto. I'm just messing with you."

Naruto stopped rambling and looked at her, "That's mean Hana."

Hana smirked playfully, "That's Hana-_sempai_ to you Naruto." She glanced at him with those eyes of hers, "Come on, let me hear you say it."

"Hana-sempai." Naruto said with a dry tone of voice.

Hana gave him a toothy grin that highlighted her elongated canines, "That's more like it! I expect you to call me that from now on! Or…" She trailed of darkly as she motioned with her hand towards her three ninken, "Would you like a repeat of four years ago?"

Naruto's face paled as he looked at Hana who had the look of the devil on her face, "That was _you_?" He breathed out. Memories of that horrible night surfacing from the deep, dark corner of his mind that he had locked them away in.

"I don't know what you're talking about Naruto." Hana said innocently enough. Naruto didn't buy it.

Naruto made a mental note that Hana was not to be trifled with. Just for the sheer sake of his survival.

XxX

(Konoha)

Sakura sighed as she made her way home after a day of training with her team. Well, could it be called a team? Naruto had disappeared off to Kami knows where. When asked, Kakashi wasn't willing to answer.

And then there was Sasuke. After his confrontation with Naruto, he had gotten so much darker than before. She had noticed the gradual changes in him. It had happened shortly after the Konoha Crash.

Something happened to him. Something that was making him the way he was now.

Sakura clenched her fist in determination, no matter! It was her duty as the woman in Sasuke's life to show him the right path. No matter the challenges. After all, love was like a hurricane.

"Sakura?"

Sakura stopped mid-stride to look beside her to see her childhood friend Ino walk out of a shop, "Ino!" She greeted with a smile. She had missed this. She had missed talking to the person that had helped her become more confident in herself.

Ino smiled as she walked towards the waving pink-haired girl, "What are you doing?" She asked as they started walking down the street.

Sakura gave her a shrug, "Nothing much. Just finished training and I figured I'd go home and relax or something. You?" She finished with a glance at her platinum-blonde haired friend.

Ino smirked, "Oh nothing much. Asuma-sensei had a mission, so we are pretty much left to our own designs." She finished as she stifled a laugh.

Sakura noticed the stifled laughter and got curious, "What? What's so funny?"

Ino's long ponytail shook side to side as she shaked her head, "It's just Shikamaru. He was so excited...well as excited as Shikamaru could be when he learned Asuma-sensei had a mission." She said before locking her hands behind her, "He figured it would give him lots of free time to do whatever Shikamaru does in his free time." Because she doubted he would spend his free time like any other normal teenager their age. His idea of a good time was probably doing something that exerted the least amount of effort on his part.

Sakura was confused as she looked at her friend, "So?" She didn't particularly see what was amusing about that. She hadn't been made aware that Shikamaru had been promoted due to spending the majority of the time in the hospital worrying over a comatose Sasuke, "I don't really see what could be so amusing."

Ino looked at her with a bewildered expression, "You don't know?" She asked, her expression conveyed through the tone of her voice, "It's practically news around the village."

"I'm not a gossip like you Ino." It wasn't like she went out of her way to know every single tidbit of gossip that was going through Konoha at the moment like her friend did. Sure, she was a gossip herself, but that was something of a pastime for her. She didn't immerse herself into the social habit like Ino did.

Ino smirked knowingly at her friend, "You should. You learn a lot of interesting stuff."

A tick mark formed on Sakura's head, "So are you going to tell me about Shikamaru or what?"

"I thought you said you weren't a gossip?" Well, the thing that involved Shikamaru wasn't actually gossip since it was actually true and she could confirm it herself, but hey, why couldn't she have fun with that little tidbit of knowledge?

Sakura huffed as she looked away, "Fine. If that's the way it is, I'll just go find someone who knows then." Damn her! Ino knew what she was doing. She was baiting the gossip in her. And it had worked. Now Sakura wanted to know.

Ino decided to pity the girl, "Alright, I had my fun. I'll tell you." That attracted Sakura's attention as she looked at Ino expectantly, "Shikamaru got promoted."

And there it was. The bombshell that caused Sakura to drop her jaw in shock and gape, "No…" She breathed out in denial.

With an amused expression on her face, Ino nodded, "Yep." She replied rather gibbly.

"_Shikamaru_ got promoted?" Ino nodded once more, "Shikamaru? Shikamaru, _Shikamaru_?"

Ino nodded was laughing lightly to herself, "The very same Sakura. I know, I had that same expression on my face when I first learned of it." Then after getting over the initial shock, she was happy for he teammate and family friend.

Sakura shook her head as the news sank in. Wow, she had been really out of touch with the world if that was news in Konoha and she didn't know about it. Maybe she had been focusing on Sasuke a little bit too much?

She quickly discarded that thought at how ludicrous that sounded.

And with that, she started seeing what Ino had found so amusing before, "He doesn't have free time because he's a chunin doesn't he?"

Ino nodded her head in vehement amusement, "Yeah. He was groaning all the way when he was summoned for a mission and I'm sure he's still groaning right now on whatever mission he's on."

A small smile came to Sakura's face, "That sounds just like Shika."

"I'm guessing its the complete opposite with Naruto. He must be enjoying being a chunin."

What?

Naruto wasn't a chunin. What was Ino smoking? "Ino, Naruto isn't a chunin. There's no way he could be a chunin. He's way too immature." Forgetting that one bout of maturity he showed in the hospital, everything else about Naruto screamed immaturity. Even the change in clothes.

Wait a second, change in clothes? When did Naruto change clothes? She had always seen him in that obnoxious outfit of his. But at the hospital, he was wearing something that was actually good to the eye. She couldn't make out the details but she knew there was definitely a lot less orange from the vague memory.

Ino looked at her old friend with a look of surprise, "You don't know?" Ino saw the look on Sakura's face and shook her head, "Amazing. I thought the first thing he would do after being promoted was run to you and brag about it in hopes of impressing you or something." A wry smirk came across Ino's lips, "He is your number one fanboy."

Sakura blinked in surprise, "You're joking right? Naruto got promoted? Our Naruto?"

Ino slowly nodded her head, "Yeah. Asuma-sensei told us he was the first in our generation to get promoted. It was a total shock to me." Her respect for the blonde had risen over the past few weeks when she learned that he had been the one to defeat Gaara.

Of course there had been some denials on her part due to thinking it was Sasuke instead of the blonde.

With the news of Naruto's promotion, some things clicked into place for the rosette. The change of clothes she vaguely remembered him in. That was probably his way of trying to show his maturity that came with the promotion.

And finally the reason of why she had seen him much these last few days. He was probably busy with the mission surplus the village was suffering from.

A small, solemn smile came across Sakura's lips. Since the Exams, she should have stopped seeing herself as better than Naruto in terms of their ninja skills. Without anybody knowing, he had suddenly taken off.

She linked her hands behind her back, "I guess I'm going to have to get him something for his promotion shouldn't I?"

Ino looked at Sakura before smirking like a cheshire cat, "Take him onto a date. Maybe then you'll realise the only one for you is Naruto instead of Sasuke-kun."

Oh she did not just go there. And here they were, having a conversation that could have led them to them actually interacting peaceably without ending up with them throwing insults at each other.

"What did you say Ino-bunta?" Sakura questioned with a ticking eyebrow, "I couldn't hear you over that oinking. Did you say 'Sasuke-kun deserves a real woman? A woman like Sakura?' Oh thank you, you shouldn't have."

Ino cast a glare at Sakura, "Why would he be interested in you? I mean, with that Billboard-brow of yours, you would damage his eyes with the sun glaring of it."

The two girls immediately butted heads with pedestrians making way away from them as sparks and various insults flew between the two.

All in all, there relationship was something of a frenemy thing.

XxX

Could it be considered horrible of him, that he, one of the richest men in the world thanks to his overly popular book series was squatting at his apprentices' home? Nah, not really.

Whatever belongings and possessions his apprentice held, they were also his to use. After all, 'su casa es mi casa'.

Jiraiya hummed a merry tune as he headed for the fridge. He had nearly puked when he saw the contents of the the electronic storage place. And then had paled when he saw his cupboards.

And the boy wondered why he was so short? Didn't anyone tell him the benefits of healthy eating? Or even having vegetables every now and then?

Ah well, he had rectified that by spending his own money restocking his entire fridge and pantry. And by his 'money' he meant the money of the apprentice he had found in a shoe box.

There was no such thing as personal boundaries between master and student.

But still, this apartment wouldn't do. it wouldn't do at all. For a student of his, his abodes had to be much bigger than this. He wouldn't have anything but the absolutely best.

...For him to come and squat over when he had the chance.

...And also entertain some lady friends.

A tapping sound on the kitchen window attracted the Toad Sage's attention and saw a messenger hawk on the other side of the window. He glided towards the window and opened it and lifted the message of the hawk before it took flight.

Huh, it was directed to Naruto. It would be unethical of him to invade his students privacy. But then again, he was already invading his privacy by going through everything he had in his house, a simple message won't matter anyway.

Unrolling the scroll and reading the message, Jiraiya couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Well…this was certainly unexpected. Maybe he could play this to his advantage if the situation needed it.

Yeah...he would definitely play it. The future didn't look at all that bright for the gaki (and secret godson). This would definitely make the future just a tiny bit brighter.

XxX

(Border of Ishi no Kuni and Kaze no Kuni)

Naruto didn't honestly hate anything outright. There were very few things in the world that had earned his ire outright from the get go. He had yet to come across against a person he hated outright, so most of the things on that list were nothing more than mundane things of the world. Things such as broccoli, sprouts or any other vegetable that didn't make a ramen dish look appealing.

But he could now add another thing to the list of things he immediately hated, the bloody desert. The heat made him irritable during the day and when night came on his first day, he was more thankful...until the temperature suddenly heat freezing out of nowhere.

Really, what sort of place had such dynamic weather as blistering hot during the day and freezing during the night?

The blonde let out a sneeze as he was on night duty.

"You look cold."

The blonde turned to face the Suna ninja who was on the same shift as he was. The higher-ups had thought it was best that relations be repaired by making the two ninjas work with each other as close as possible, such as that during night watch, it was always an even number of Konoha and Suna shinobi.

In Naruto's case, his partner during his shift was none other than Sabaku no Temari. Yeah, that was right, the older sister of the guy she had fought a deathmatch with in the outskirts of Konoha.

"Really? What gave that away, the sneeze maybe?" He asked irritably.

Temari gave him something of a defensive shrug, "No need to snap. I was just saying."

Naruto looked at the eldest of the Sabaku siblings. She had changed her attire from the last time he had seen her, wearing a long sleeved purple blouse, grey top underneath, dark blue short skirt, which had a slit at the side Naruto couldn't help but glance at occasionally, hormones and all. And finally a long sash around her waist.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to snap. The weathers getting to me." He apologised before giving her a once over one more time, "How are you not cold?" She asked as she pointed towards her attire.

Temari raised an eyebrow, "I was born here. It's easy to get used to the weather."

Naruto nodded his head in understanding, "I guess that's true." He said before getting back to their duty. He might not have liked the mission he was on, but that didn't stop him from putting his 100% into it. Something might happen if slacked off.

And with that thought, he hoped Shikamaru wasn't slacking of wherever he was.

Temari occasionally glanced at Naruto trying to figure him out. They had been introduced to each other only several days ago, their platoon working with his platoon.

At first it was sort of awkward. Naruto seemed to be doing everything in his power to try and not be alone with Gaara. That she didn't understand. The blonde boy beside her had somehow managed to defeat her brother, a person she had thought impossible to defeat in a fight.

So why did it seem he was trying to avoid him like he was scared of her? Well she couldn't talk. She was wary working with him. After all, this was the kid that had defeated the brother she had been scared of since she was little.

...Who had happened to become less scary ever since the invasion.

Something happened during or after the fight between the two. Something that had changed Gaara. He had yet to kill anyone from Suna randomly. And the biggest shocker of all was that he had apologised to her and Kankuro when they had made their retreat.

And that for some reason made her scared of him. The little blonde kid she had dismissed had somehow managed to change her psychopathic brother into being a little less psychopathic.

"Temari-chan."

She was knocked out of her thoughts by the blonde. Temari looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "Temari-_chan_?" She repeated as she looked at him, "I doubt we're that friendly to be that familial." Most of the time, they just made the occasional short conversation about something whilst they were on watch.

Naruto gave her a shrug, "Well, that's a part of me, deal with it. And I'm not stopping you from becoming familiar with me."

"Who says I want to be familiar with you?" Temari asked. The blonde scared her. Simple as that.

"Nobody really." Naruto cooly replied as he scratched his head whilst scanning the horizon for anything, "But since we're going to be working with each other for however long, why not?"

That was a good point he was making. If they knew each other better, maybe they could find a common ground about which they could talk to each other about. She stopped and looked at Naruto before shaking her head, she doubted she had anything in common with the blonde.

"I doubt we actually have anything to talk about Naruto-san." Naruto looked at her with widened eyes, "W-What?" She asked, slightly unnerved with the stare.

Naruto shook his head as he went back to his previous activity, "Oh nothing really. Not many people use the honorific '-san' with my name." The only other one being that woman from the Memorial Stone, "And I don't blame them. I don't like it. Just call me Naruto."

Temari looked at him before looking back on the horizon, "Fine then...Naruto."

Naruto grinned widely, "See? We're making progress! I'm sure it was boring for you having those silent nights before." Temari didn't answer but agreed with him nonetheless. Night watch was a boring duty as the majority of the time, nothing happened. Talking with someone alleviated the boredom, "You know, I've been wondering, why do you always act wary around me?"

"What?" Temari asked, startled by the question. She had thought that she had hid her wariness from him. He was more perspective than she thought.

"You heard me." Naruto said, "Everytime you're around me, you act as if I would do something bad or something. And then there's this," He finished as he motion to the rather large gap between the two, "I'm sure leaving this large amount of space between us isn't standard." There were at least several feet away from each other.

Temari bit her lip, "I'm not wary of you." She was scared of him.

Naruto barked out a laugh, "Then what are you? Scared?" Temari didn't answer and the male blonde's eyes widened, "Seriously? You're scared of me? Why would you be scared of me?" Look at him, he didn't look at all imposing or scary.

When one thought of Uzumaki Naruto, one would think of a short, brash, loud, goofy, annoying blonde haired brat. Nothing at all about him said he was scary. Nothing at all. Well unless they were counting the thing that was sealed inside.

"You beat Gaara. That's why." Temari answered quickly, "Nobody _beats_ Gaara."

"I did." Naruto deadpanned with a raised hand to attract attention, "Wait," He said as he caught on, "Is that why you're scared of me? Because I beat Gaara? How does that make me scary?"

Temari sighed as she rubbed her temple. She didn't really want to talk about this. She doubted if she told her fellow blonde to forget it, he would. Instead, he would more than likely pester her about it. He seemed like that type of person.

"Look at it from my view. I grew up with the little brother that randomly killed people that annoyed him or whenever he felt like it. I grew up walking around eggshells with him, thinking the slightest thing I did might end up with him killing me. Many people tried to kill him, but all of them ended up dead. No-one could beat him. For me, apart from our father, he was the strongest ever." She began before motioning her hands over him, "And then you came along and managed to beat him. Even when he released Shukaku! What was I supposed to think?"

Naruto looked at her owlishly. He wasn't much of a thinker, but he was slowly getting there. But he could see where she was coming from. She had lived in fear of her brother for so long and had watched so many people die try to kill him and fail badly before ending up dead themselves.

That must have psychologically ingrained in her that her brother was the bomb and that she should be scared of him. That was until a 4'9, blonde boy from Konoha came out of the woodworks and took her brother to town. Now her fear was being projected away from her brother to him.

Of course to Naruto, that thought process had been much simpler than that, but he could get the gist of the situation before laughing, "You shouldn't be scared of me. I'm not all scary. Sure, I might have beat Gaara, but that doesn't mean I'm some sort of monster you should be scared of. When you first met me, what was your first impression of me?" He asked the girl.

"Short, stupid-looking, loud, brash, obnoxious, among many other things."

Naruto sweat dropped, "...Yeah, I'm still some of those things." Naruto admitted with a nod of the head, "But now, can you honestly tell me if anyone with those characteristics can be scary?" Temari thought about it before shaking her head, "Exactly. If you still find me scary, just think of those things. But now, just add dashingly good-looking, cool, mature, awesome, brilliant and various other things and then we're good."

Temari smirked in amusement, "Don't kid yourself. You're cute at best." She finished before widening her eyes at what she just said, "And I didn't mean anything by that!"

Naruto just chuckled, "Well, cute is better than nothing anyway. And its quite good to hear it coming from a gorgeous girl like you."

"Eh thanks?" Temari said with a slight blush. Being the son of the Kazekage and having Gaara for a brother meant that not many boys tried to hit on her, "But don't get any ideas. I have a metal fan and I'm willing to use it."

Naruto gave her a wide toothy grin as he raised his hands in a surrendering motion, "Okay, okay, okay." He said as he backed off, "But just so you know, I like strong women." And that was based on the fact that he continued to be into Sakura no matter how many times she pummelled him into the ground.

Temari, with a healthy blush on her face, stopped herself from going for her tessen and hitting Naruto with it, 'That won't be good for our villages' relations with Konoha.' She thought as she hid her blush from the blonde by facing the other way.

That was probably a bad idea on her part, "Wow, she looks just as lovely from behind just as you do from the front." She heard Naruto think out loud. She could practically feel him widening his eyes from what he just said, "...I said that out loud didn't I?"

"Yes."

Screw inter-village relations. A pervert needed a beating.

XxX

"Uzumaki."

"Gaara."

The two jinchuuriki faced off each other as Gaara stared impassively at a slightly sweating Naruto. He didn't really count his chances of winning a fight against Gaara with so much sand around.

He hoped Gaara wasn't the vindictive type and wanted revenge for his loss.

"...You're not here to try and get your win back are you?" Naruto asked after the staring contest started getting to him. Did Gaara ever blink?

Gaara quirked an eyebrow...if he had an eyebrow, "Get my win back?" He repeated with his gravelly monotonous voice, "What do you mean by that Uzumaki?"

Naruto blinked. So Gaara wasn't here to try and kill him for beating him two months ago? That was good, "Oh nothing." But that didn't mean Gaara still scared the crap out of him. He would feel more at ease with less sand around.

Just to make sure no sand was slowly rising to encase him in a sand coffin, he quickly glanced down and around him before sighing. He was golden.

For now.

"So…" Naruto began, trying to word his question carefully, hoping not to insult the sand using shinobi, "What's up?"

"Nothing is up." Clearly Gaara wasn't used to the language of the hip kids, "I just came to say thank you."

Now that caused eyebrows to rise into the air, "...Thank you?" Naruto repeated. What could Gaara honestly want to thank Naruto about. Not that he minded. People should be thanking him every day for just simply being awesome.

Gaara nodded, "Yes. For opening my eyes and allowing me to see what was truly important to me."

Ahh, he was talking about what he had said at the end of their battle during the invasion. It seemed as if Gaara had walked away from that with his eyes wide open, "So how are things going with that then?"

"Slow...but good." Gaara said, "But its to be expected with my history." His lips gave a slight twitch of amusement, "My siblings seem to find my sudden change somewhat strange."

Of course they would. They had suddenly found themselves not being threatened with threats of death whenever Kankuro and Temari started getting into one of their usual arguments.

Naruto grinned at him, "That's good. You've already found two of your precious persons."

Maybe they had always been precious to him. He couldn't remember any other people he actually gave warnings to if they annoyed him. He just outright killed them during that dark part of his life.

"It seems so. It was nice talking to you Uzumaki." Gaara said as he began to walk away before stopping, "Oh yes. I've noticed you have been getting along with my sister."

"Well...I wouldn't call it getting along." Naruto said with a dry expression as he scratched his chin. Sure, they talked a lot more now whenever they did their shifts. His usual antics even managed to make her laugh every now and then, but that would always soon be followed by him doing something stupid of the pervert nature that would earn her ire.

"It doesn't matter. She talks fondly of you somewhat. Therefore," He faced Naruto one more time, "If you hurt my sister, I'll kill you." He finished before leaving.

Naruto just stared at Gaara's back wide-eyed, "...Did Gaara just threaten me?"

"I think he just did."

"Gah!" Naruto let out a yelp of surprise at that voice and turned his attention to the top of one of the buildings in the outpost to see Asuma sitting their with an amused grin on his face, "Asuma-se-taichou?" He still wasn't used to addressing the man as taichou yet.

"The one and only kid." Asuma said as he lit a cigarette, "I have to say, you've been impressing me ever since you got here. You're doing your generation proud."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "Why?" From previous interactions with the man. Whenever he impressed Asuma, it wasn't because of his skills, it was because of something else entirely.

"Oh nothing really." He said as he stroked his beard, "I mean, just look at you, travelling the world, breaking hearts whilst you're at it."

Naruto just blinked, "Breaking hearts? Wait, is this about Temari-chan?"

"_Temari-chan_?" Asuma replied, his grin even wider, "Just you wait till Kakashi hears about this. I think he would be very proud of you. Maybe even Jiraiya-sama."

Definitely Jiraiya. In fact, Jiraiya would probably want every single detail. That little realisation caused Naruto's eyes to widen, "You wouldn't."

Asuma cooly exhaled smoke from his lungs before taking another drag of his cigarette as he looked up to the sky, "Kid, I would."

* * *

**AN: Leave a review!**

**And that is all.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Sad times. Major sad times indeed.**

* * *

"Well, you're certainly getting better Naruto-kun." The former Hokage of Konoha, Sarutobi Hiruzen remarked as he moved his piece to place Naruto into check, "You've lasted a few moves longer now."

The blonde grumbled as he looked at the shogi board in front of him, "That's seven losses in a row." And all under fifteen minutes too. The longest he had played for was eleven minutes, and that was the last game. Even though shogi wasn't his thing, this was rather embarrassing.

He was glad the Sandaime wasn't the type of person who would go about announcing his victory to the rest of the world. Something Naruto probably, definitely would have done without the least bit of shame in the slightest.

Hey, if some thirteen, nearly fourteen year old kid had managed to defeat the person known throughout the shinobi world as 'The Professor' in a game of shogi or anything else for that matter, the news would have to be spread.

And Naruto would have been more than willing to spread the news.

Hiruzen chuckled, "Well, you're nought but a beginner in this game." Something like this was sort of out of Naruto's range of skills. Well at the moment anyway. When he had enough motivation, the blonde had repeatedly shown he was willing to go above and beyond to make sure that he didn't fail at something, was rather adequate instead.

Naruto placed a frown on his whiskered face before sighing, "I guess you have a point there jiji." The blonde said as he relaxed. The cushion he was sitting on wasn't doing much to stop his butt from hurting. Couldn't they have sat on a chair and played this game on a table or something? "Just you wait, give me sometime, and I'll be the one defeating you continuously."

Sarutobi lighted up a pipe, "If you insist Naruto-kun." He might have been old, but he still had something of a competitive streak to him. Whether he looked down on Naruto fondly like one would look at a grandson, he wasn't going to just willingly lose to the boy without a fight.

Hiruzen eyed the boy as he reset the shogi table ready to fight once more. He smiled lightly as he lit up his pipe at seeing the boy seemingly grow even more from the talk they had shared just a few months back, "So how are you handling chunin life Naruto-kun?"

Naruto groaned as he thought about the past few months from when he got promoted to chunin. It was mission after mission. And when he didn't have a mission, he would get put on two assignments that he certainly had decided he didn't like, not in the slightest. Gate guarding duty and border patrol, "If someone had taught me I had to deal with all the stuff I've been doing, I'd have been prepared to just stay a genin."

Hiruzen let out a deep chuckle as he brought his pipe to his mouth, "Then if you had stayed genin, your dream to become Hokage would have been nought but impossible."

Naruto merely nodded, "I know."

Oh he knew. After becoming chunin, someone (ahem, Jiraiya) had carefully explained to Naruto how the military system of the village. When he had learned that there was no chance anyone in their right frame of mind would put a genin-ranked ninja into the head seat of a military organisation, the blonde got red-faced as he remembered his declaration during the Chunin Exams Preliminaries.

Wow, now that he looked back on it, that was rather embarrassing.

How would the other villages perceive Konoha if they had a Hokage, no matter how powerful, who came from the second to last rank of the ninja ranks? Not in a threatening manner that was for sure.

The blonde continued, "It's just been so busy. I've barely had anytime to see any of my friends." Naruto was a social creature. He wasn't one for being alone unless he had to. He had to interact with the friends he had made every now and then.

Hiruzen merely nodded his head slightly as smoke escaped from his pipe, "I'm sure the mission surplus is dwindling." The twice retired Hokage stated as he moved a piece. Now that he was retired, he had become something of an advisor along with his former teammates to Tsunade and was thus kept in the loop of many things, such as the state of the village and mission requests, "You'll have time to see your peers very soon Naruto-kun."

"That's good. I haven't annoyed Kiba in a while." He was still working on someway to get Hana to make-out with him in front of Kiba. That was easier said than done because the older Inuzuka actually scared him from the interaction he'd had with her on the the few mission they went on together.

She was playful and fun to be around, but sometimes just scary.

"And what about Sasuke-kun?"

Naruto's form stiffened slightly as he moved a piece on the shogi set. Of course the Sandaime would know about his current estrangement from his former rival. How could he not know? He had that stupid crystal ball of his that allowed him to see any place within the boundary of the village and he must have at least be more than adequate in the skill of lip reading.

Actually, about that crystal ball, he wondered if his grandfather-like figure had ever used it to peek into the women's onsens. It was certainly more economical and safer than Jiraiya's method. And he knew for sure that Hiruzen was something of a pervert.

And with that, the truth dawned in on Naruto. Kami...he was going to end up a pervert wasn't he? All his male role models were perverts. Now that just sucked so many balls it wasn't even funny.

"What about him?" Naruto asked, his tone of voice seemingly not being able to choose between displeased and one of utter detachment on the subject.

Hiruzen merely quirked an eyebrow, "Do I really have to answer that Naruto-kun?"

Well no, no he didn't but it was just the principle of the matter here, "Yes, you do actually."

Ah, there was the stubborn nature of the boy peeking through. Hiruzen took a long drag of his pipe with a calm and amused expression on his face, "If I'm not correct, you had a bit of a falling out with him did you not?"

'Falling out?' Naruto thought, his features not betraying his thoughts, 'Understatement of the century.' Whatever budding respect or friendship the two had been building ever since they became Team 7 had been knocked back to square one or even the negatives as far as Naruto knew.

Sasuke didn't seem at all pleased that the blonde had walked out on him, "Well, it was more than a 'bit of a falling out'." The blonde corrected as he frowned down on the match in front of him. How did Hiruzen trap him without him noticing? Damn him, he was going to beat this man if it was the last thing he did.

"So what was it then?" The sagely ninja enquired as he looked on amused at Naruto's expression at the shogi set in front of him.

"It was...something." Naruto answered unsurely. It was definitely something. Something that involved whatever insecurities Sasuke had coming to the surface at seeing him, "I don't really know what it was."

On the other hand, Hiruzen did know. He had read the psych reports on every one of the graduating genin that was standard procedure in their files. He knew of Sasuke's inferiority and superiority complexes. Being at the top of his class had kept those complexes in check, but Naruto's growth ever since his graduation must have lowered his inhibition to keep them in check.

Made even worse probably by the fact that Naruto had been the dead last of the Academy who was now scaringly and fastly approaching him in terms of skill and power.

A weary sigh escaped from Hiruzen's lips that Naruto didn't notice, 'Itachi, just what did you do to the boy?' He remembered the young Uchiha from before the massacre. He was so bright, kind and loving, now he was replaced with this young man with so much hate and darkness in him.

More than a normal human being should have.

"Well, I'm sure if you stopped avoiding him and talked to him, you might be able to settle whatever this was out." Hiruzen suggested. He was sure the blonde in front of him could be a positive influence on the young man.

Naruto rubbed his chin with squinted eyes unsurely, "Maybe. I just don't know where to start, you know?"

"How about a simple hello to start things off with and see how it goes from there."

Naruto sighed as he saw himself being placed into check, "I guess I can do that." The blonde said as he got up. He wasn't giving up. Not in the slightest, Uzumaki Naruto didn't give up. He was just making a tactical withdrawal for the moment.

He would be back. And he would win.

"I might as well go find him." The blonde said as he gave the elderly man a parting wave as he disappeared towards the exit of the house.

"You do that Naruto-kun."

XxX

Naruto had said he was going to find him, but that was easier said than done. Sasuke hadn't been at any of the training grounds or the likes. Then again, maybe he was at the Uchiha compound.

Didn't large clans like them have their own training grounds? He was sure they did, because he saw a lot of training areas when he was making his way through the Sarutobi compound. And the Sarutobi clan wasn't one of the larger clans of Konoha anyway.

Now realising he would find Sasuke at the Uchiha compound, the blonde decided to head that way before realising something. He had no idea where the Uchiha compound was.

He didn't know the place simply because he had never felt the need to actually go there before now. And Konoha was big, he only knew where things were because he went there for various reasons.

"BRAT!"

Naruto was startled by the rather loud voice yelling out into the street. He recognised the voice, there was only one person who actually had the gall and potential to thoroughly kick his ass to call him that.

"Baa-chan?" Naruto asked as he looked up. Huh, it seemed he had somehow managed to walk all the way towards the Hokage Tower in his musings, "Why are you being so loud? You're scaring the people." He said as he indicated towards the various civilians who had been startled by the sudden yell.

From her place situated in the tower, Tsunade rolled her eyes, "Just get up here!" She yelled at him, her voice leaving no room for any theatrics from the blonde.

Naruto shrugged and made his way up the building. He didn't bother going through the official way as he jumped towards the window instead. She had left the window open solely for that reason hadn't she?

"I hope you aren't going to make a habit out of that." Tsunade stated when she saw Naruto perched onto her window.

Naruto gave her a shrug as he jumped into the office, "I don't know. It seems fun. I can definitely see why ero-sennin does it." The blonde said with a grin on his face. He then noticed the rather serious expression on Tsunade's face, "What is it baa-chan? If you want, I won't come through the window." She wasn't really that angry over such a thing was she?

Tsunade waved Naruto's statement away with a wave of her hand, "It's not that." She said as she opened a drawer on her side of the desk, "I've got a mission for you."

"Of course you do." Naruto remarked dryly. He should have made for the hills the moment he had the chance, "So what is it? What am I doing? It's not another glorified delivery mission is it?" The last mission he had been given was a delivery mission for an important document between two nobles.

Important document his ass. The document was nothing more than love letters and rather x-rated pictures between the two nobles.

"No." Tsunade replied quickly as she pulled out a bag and threw it at Naruto, "I need you to go back-up a team." She didn't know how the blonde was going to react to learning the next bit of news.

Naruto caught the bag and noticed it had pills in it, "Back-up a team? Alright, who am I backing up?" The blonde asked as he secured the bag of pills into his pack.

"A team compromising of Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee, Inuzuka Kiba and Akimichi Choji." She paused as she looked directly at Naruto, "Their mission consisted of retrieving Uchiha Sasuke."

Naruto paused deadly still as he looked at Tsunade, "W-What?" Naruto stammered out, "Retrieve Sasuke? What are you talking about baa-chan?"

"Sometime this early morning, your old teammate Sasuke left the village according to your other teammate Sakura, I think her name was."

Naruto was shocked as he looked at Tsunade. Sasuke left the village? Why the hell would he do that? "Sasuke's deserted?" He wanted to say left, but it was practically the same thing here. Just more appropriate due to the fact he was a soldier, a soldier-for-hire, but still a soldier none the less.

"Defected actually." Tsunade corrected, "We believe that he's defected to Otogakure." Or going to Orochimaru, since it was practically the same thing. Orochimaru _was_ Otogakure.

"Orochimaru."

Tsunade grimly nodded, "Yes. I know he's your friend Naruto, but if you can't convince him to come back, we can't let Orochimaru get his hands on the Sharingan…" She trailed off as she locked eyes with Naruto, conveying the last of her sentence via eye contact.

Naruto grimaced when he got the gist of what she was saying, "...I got it." The blonde finally said after a moment of silence. He might still hold a spot of some sort for Sasuke, but Orochimaru was bad and if he got the Sharingan, Orochimaru was trouble enough as he was at the moment. He didn't need freaky red eyes with weird powers.

That was more trouble than he would like.

"Good. Go brat."

XxX

(Ta no Kuni - Somewhere)

Orochimaru's snake like eyes glinted in the dark, "Kabuto."

His bespectacled right hand man walked to his side, "Yes Orochimaru-sama?"

"When will Sasuke-kun get here?" He questioned. He couldn't wait long. The Sharingan was right before him. And he could already think of several things he would want to do with those beautiful eyes.

Kabuto pushed up his glasses, "They are still several hours away Orochimaru-sama."

"Is that so…" Several hours? That was nothing. He had waited years for this chance, a little longer was nothing. But what was this feeling he was getting?

"What is it Orochimaru-sama?" Kabuto asked, seemingly sensing something was not at ease with his master.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." He said as he ignored the feeling. It was probably nothing, but then again, just in case…"Contact Guren, tell her I have a mission for her."

Kabuto blinked as he nodded, "As you say Orochimaru-sama."

XxX

Naruto sped through the tree tops at breathtaking speeds. All he was to an observer that wasn't used to such speeds was a blur of black and yellow. He had discarded his weights the moment he had received his mission.

They would have weighed him down. He needed to be in a hurry. The quicker he found Sasuke, the quicker he would get his answers and if need be, kick his ass and then drag his (probably) broken body back to Konoha.

The blonde was pushing himself so hard that he was unconsciously drawing upon the potent chakra of the Kyuubi to sustain and add a bigger boost to his speed than the one he was already having. The only noticeable sign of such a thing was that his pupils were now slitted in his blue eyes.

The potent chakra in his system allowed him to sense a sudden volume of chakra in the distance that he couldn't place or put a name to before it started diminishing. He was torn between hoping the powerful chakra didn't belong to one of the people fighting against his friends, either wise they would have been in a very tough situation.

The other being that it _did _belong to a friend of his that had suddenly decided to go out to win whatever battle they were in. If it was a friend, he would soon find out who had been holding back since the Academy because the chakra he was feeling definitely didn't belong to any sort of genin.

Not wanting to leave anything to fate, or his hopes, Naruto pushed himself even harder, risking injuring himself at the way he was going. Which would have been rather stupid on his part since he was the back-up to his friends.

The blonde eventually came barrelling into a clearing. He dug his heels into the ground to come to a skidding halt and looked around.

There had definitely been a fight here, that was for sure. There was signs of some sort of jutsu having been used and the area was littered with fallen trees and craters of sorts.

From the corner of his eye, Naruto noticed a rather large crater that had pieces of earth sticking like it had been hit with something hard. From where he was, he could definitely see a body lying in the ruins of the crater.

Steeling himself for the worst as a just in case, the blonde quickly made his way towards the crater. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw the body inside the crater didn't belong to anybody that had been sent on the mission.

Instead, it had the body of a rather portly teenager with a strange orange mohawk style, 'One of the people that must have taken Sasuke.' Naruto guessed as he looked down on the body and then zoned in on the rather large indent in his chest where something hard had hit him enough to cave in his ribs and kill him. Looking away from the rather gruesome sight, Naruto looked around for any indication as to where the others had gone from there.

"They could have at least left some kind of message or something." Naruto grumbled as he extended his senses to at least try and pick up the direction the others went in. He didn't have to extend his senses for long as he soon found himself sensing a presence not too far from him.

The blonde then took off into the trees as he headed in the direction of where he had felt the presence before seeing a figure a fair distance away from him.

"Choji…?" Naruto questioned unsurely when he saw a figure that was dressed in the same outfit his friend Choji dressed in slumped against the trunk of a tree unmoving. The reason why he was unsure was because, last time he had checked, Choji was a rather portly boy...whoever this was, wasn't.

The blonde came to a halt and kneeled down in front of the slim figure and lifted his face up before the blonde's blue eyes widened in surprise, "Choji!" He yelled out in realisation when he saw the spiral markings on the young man's face, "Hey Choji, wake up!" The blonde yelled frantically as he slapped the other boy on the cheeks.

There was no way in hell he was going to let one of his friends die right in front of him. No way in hell.

A slight murmuring came from Choji as his eyes parted slightly, "...Naruto?" He called out weakly.

Naruto let out a sigh before digging into his pack and bringing out one of the pills Tsunade had given him, "The one and only Choji." Naruto said as he moved the pill to Choji's mouth, "Come on big guy, open your mouth. I've got some barbecued beef for you right here."

Choji's mouth parted with some help from Naruto before crunching down on the pill and swallowing, "...That's not beef." He joked rather weakly.

"I lied, so sue me." Naruto said with a small smile on his face. Whatever Tsunade had given him was working as some life seemed to come back to Choji's skin, "Alright, I'm going to make some clones and they're going to take you back to Konoha alright? Just don't fall asleep on the way back." He didn't really know whether he should be moving Choji or not, but he didn't seem to suffering from any internal wounds other than chakra exhaustion.

"Alright." Choji replied before raising a hand just a little bit of the ground to point in a direction, "The others went that way. If you go now, you'll be able to catch up. We split up not too long ago."

Naruto nodded as he created clones to carry Choji back to the village and started going in the direction Choji had pointed him in. Before he took to the trees once more, he glanced back at Choji.

Choji seemingly noticed the look as he was placed on a clone's back, "Just go. I'll be fine." He said with a small smile.

Naruto gave a hesitant nod before finally taking to the trees. As he leapt from branch to branch, a new sense of urgency came to him. From the state of the battlefield between Choji and that other person, Naruto definitely knew whoever these people were, they clearly went any sort of pushovers in the slightest.

He hoped the next person he ran into wouldn't be as worse of as Choji.

With that thought in mind, the blonde once more pushed himself beyond his limits to reach the rest of his friends before something catastrophic happened.

Not being used at travelling at such speeds, the blonde nearly crashed into a webbing of some sort that clearly wasn't normal spider webbing. Slowing down, the blonde navigated around the webbing as he went towards the signatures he could feel not too far in front of him.

Soon afterwards, he came to scene of the second battlefield as he saw Neji battling against someone with six arms. Naruto completely stopped thinking as he looked up at the man, '...Six arms? Does he buy his clothes from a special catalogue or something?' Even then, that was probably pushing it.

Shaking his head to get himself back in the game, the blonde started sneaking around the battlefield as he waited for an opportunity to strike. A while ago, he would have probably announced himself on the battlefield in a rather flashy manner, much like he had done against Zabuza, but now? Now he wasn't that stupid or flashy.

Naruto watched as Neji retreated to lower ground as the guy with the arms started chucking gold-coloured webbings that were hardened. Naruto waited for a chance to launch a surprise attack and managed to get one when the hostile ninja started going through hand seals that the blonde remembered.

'He's summoning something.' The blonde thought as he pulled out a handful of shuriken and threw them at the male as he brought his hands together, "Futon: Reppushou (Wind Release: Violent Gale Palm)."

The shuriken got an added boost of speed from the compressed gale of wind as they travelled through the air before finding themselves embedded in in various vital place's in Kidomaru's body, "W-What?" The surprised Oto ninja let out as blood gurgled out of his mouth, "This can't be game over." He finished as he dropped lifelessly to the ground below.

Naruto dropped down from the trees as Neji let out a sigh as he dropped his Byakugan, "Naruto. I was wondering when you were going to do something." The Hyuga ninja stated as he looked at the blonde before raising an eyebrow, "What's wrong with you?" He queried when he saw him stare down to the ground below at Kidomaru's body.

Naruto looked back up to Neji, "Nothing. Nevermind." He said with a shake of the head, his face somewhat pale, "How are you chakra wise anyway?" The blonde questioned as he moved the subject away, "I've got some soldier pills."

Neji continued looking at him strangely before relenting, "I'm fine. The fight wasn't that consuming." He then looked in the direction the blonde had come from, "Is Choji alright?"

"Yeah. He's alright, he's just a bit banged up though." And also he had suddenly lost a lot of weight. But he didn't know whether that was something of concern or not, "I sent him back with my clones."

"That's good." Neji said as he started heading in one direction, "Come on, the others aren't too far ahead. We can catch up if we hurry."

Naruto gave him a nod as they both took off into the woods.

XxX

"Shikamaru!" Naruto called out as he and Neji landed beside the young Nara ninja.

Shikamaru glanced back from his opponent, "Naruto?" He said in surprise at seeing his former classmate and fellow chunin.

His eyebrows then narrowed slightly as he looked at the blonde, "What?" Naruto asked when he saw the look he was receiving from him.

"Where were you this morning?" Really, this mission would have been far less troublesome than it was being if he had been able to find the blonde when he had been assigned it. When Tsunade had told him to include Naruto in this little party, the young Nara had already come up with various strategies and tactics that included that troublesome cloning jutsu of his.

"Oh you know here and there." Naruto answered vaguely as he looked away, "What about it?"

"Argh…" How he wished he could just strangle the blonde in front of him. But then again, that exerted too much effort on his part therefore, he should just let it be and get back to the task at hand.

"The barrel Sasuke is located in isn't here." Neji commented as he had been the only one to keep his eyes on the opponent in front of them in case she tried anything, "So is Kiba and Lee." He noted offhandedly.

"Some other guy turned up and took the barrel. Lee was the only one fast enough to give chase." He then indicated with his head behind them, "Kiba fell down some sort of ravine with one of those guys."

A frown came across Naruto's face, "Is he alright?"

"I don't know Naruto. She didn't exactly give me time to go down the ravine and check." Shikamaru answered with a bit of bite in his tone.

Naruto just looked at Shikamaru, "Alright, alright, alright. No need to get all snappy."

Shikamaru thought either wise. This mission had suffered setback, after setback. They had to split three times now and he didn't know the conditions of his teammates-Hey wait a minute, Naruto was here...this meant that the blonde clearly had come the same way they had come from and could have run into Choji...who wasn't with them.

Then again, Choji could have been to badly injured to give chase after fighting that other guy, Jiroubou or something, "Naruto-."

"Choji's fine." Naruto quickly answered the Nara clansmen. The blonde knew of the close friendship Shikamaru had with the next head of the Akimichi clan, "He's on his way back to Konoha courtesy of my clones."

Shikamaru let a sigh escape from his mouth before getting his game face on, "Neji, can you go after Kiba and give him back-up? I don't think something like that would kill him."

Neji merely nodded to the order before disappearing into the trees in the direction indicated, his Byakugan activated to give him further details.

"Hey!" Naruto and Shikamaru's attention were drawn to the shout by the female ninja in front of them, "What the hell do you cock-suckers think you are doing anyway?"

Cocksuckers? What a lame attempt at a taunt, "Who the fuck are you calling a cocksucker you bitch?" The hotheaded individual of the two chunins in the area yelled back as he glared at the redhead in front of him.

The girl merely looked at Naruto with a look, "Well, do you see any other dickless wimps around here you blonde fucker?"

Naruto was rather taken aback by just how dirty her mouth was, "Oh man, I'm going to enjoy cleaning your mouth with some soap!"

"Ha!" Tayuya let out in amusement of the highest degree, "As if a stupid looking fucker like you could beat me, you dickless bastard!"

Naruto cracked his knuckles in anticipation of a fight, "I honestly think this is probably the only time that I find myself wanting to actually beat the living shit out of a girl." Naruto hadn't been taunted. No, taunting didn't do anything to him now that he was all mature and stuff.

No, this was more a matter of pride than anything else. He won't have some girl or anybody in fact question his mettle as a man by calling him dickless. That was just uncalled for.

"You can try you bastard!" Tayuya said as he began playing her flute.

Naruto blinked when he found himself starting to calm down and get drowsy when the melody Tayuya was playing hit his ears before his surroundings started to change in a slow blur.

Shikamaru watched with a deadpan stare as Naruto began to fall under the influence of the genjutsu Tayuya was casting. He quickly put a hand on Naruto and disturbed the blonde's chakra system with his own injection of chakra.

"W-What just happened?" The bewildered blonde asked as he looked around.

"You got caught in a genjutsu that's what happened." Shikamaru deadpanned. Man, he didn't know whether to count Naruto's presence here as a cursing or a blessing. Right now, he was nothing more than a hindrance, "Naruto come here. I've got a plan."

Naruto immediately scooted in closer to Shikamaru. If there was one thing he knew about his friend, it was that when Shikamaru had a plan, he had a plan. And that plan would more or less work if everything went as planned.

Tayuya looked at the two Konoha chunins conversed, "Like hell I will just let you bastards start scheming right in front of me!" Tayuya moved her flute to her lips in preparation to play it once more before a shadow cast itself over her.

"Surprise bitch!" Naruto declared as he dropped in on her with a two footed stamp.

Tayuya was primarily a genjutsu fighter, she knew that. And one of the attributes of a good genjutsu fighter was the ability to dodge like hell when you found yourself embroiled in a close-range battle.

And that's what she did. Tayuya deftly dodged the stomp by dropping down to a hanging branch below her, "Like something like that would hit me you cocky shit!"

"Wow, you really need to wash your mouth with some soap." A lazy voice drawled out from behind her.

Tayuya quickly snapped her head behind her to see Shikamaru with his hands in the rat seal that Tayuya had seen enough to recognise. She immediately began looking around for the shadow of the bastard in behind her that extended and immobilised anyone it touched.

Seeing something extend from the shadows of a leafy canopy, Tayuya preventatively jumped away before she found a fist connecting itself to her face. The hit left her dazed as she crashed into a thick branch.

She only managed to get herself up before she found herself at the receiving end of a brutal combination of punches and kicks.

"Y-You cockfucking son of a bitch!" The girl yelled as he swiped her flute in front of her to separate herself from Naruto, "I bet you feel like a fucking man wailing in on a gi-." She stopped when she found herself unable to move her hand to bring her flute to her mouth, "W-What?"

"Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Possession Jutsu)," Shikamaru began as he smirked rather lazily at Tayuya, "Success."

Tayuya glared at the smirking Shikamaru hatefully before putting on a smirk herself. Like hell she would be defeated by this bunch of Konoha bitches. The Nara didn't look like much, she was sure if she activated her Cursed Seal, she would be able to easily overpower whatever jutsu he was using.

Naruto and Shikamaru looked on in confusion at the smirk that Tayuya had on her face. Why would she be smirking? There was no need to smirk at all in the slightest in the predicament she was in.

For crying out loud, she was bound and at the mercy of two enemy ninjas. Nothing about that situation warranted any sort of smirking on anybody in the slightest.

"Why is she smirking?" Naruto asked as his question was directed towards Shikamaru.

"I don't know Naruto." Shikamaru replied, equally confused at the smirk on the girls' lips, "I might be smart, but that doesn't mean I know everything."

"I didn't ask you because you're smart Shika." Yes. Yes he did ask Shikamaru that question because he was smart. When in doubt about something, ask the smartest person in the room. Or in this situation, ask the smartest person in the tree tops.

Shikamaru was about to retort but instead found himself suddenly having to put more chakra into his jutsu to keep Tayuya down when strange lines started spreading across her face and body, originating from the bridge between her neck and shoulders.

Naruto looked as the lines continued to creep across the girls' visible frame, "...Hey Shika...she's moving." He said rather lamely as pointed to the girl who was slowly but surely raising her flute to her mouth.

"Really?" Shikamaru stated, beads of sweat starting to form on his persons, "What brought that on? Could it be because she's raising her hand?" Okay, okay, there was no need for the sarcasm, "Hurry up and do something!" The young Nara snapped in Naruto's direction.

"Do what!?"

"Whack her on the head you stupid blonde person!"

"Fine!" Naruto yelled back as he rushed the girl with a fist cocked back, ready to hit something.

Tayuya's eyes widened when she saw Naruto rush her. It was safe to say she did not think this through. She couldn't really expect the stupid looking one to just stand there and do nothing as she broke the jutsu that was holding her down now could he?

Of course not. Even if he did look that stupid.

"You bastards!" Tayuya swore before the fist connected with her, rocketing her into one of the large tree trunks that made up the forests of Hi no Kuni.

Not leaving anything to fate, Naruto dropped on her and delivered several more hits until the girl was lying unmoving on one of the branches, "...Just to be on the safe side…" He muttered as he delivered a kick to her head.

Shikamaru walked up to him wiping some sweat from his brow, "Overkill much?" He honestly couldn't care if it was overkill. That had been more effort that he had wanted to exert in putting this woman down.

Naruto shrugged, "Do you want her to suddenly rise up and surprise us with another freaky thing?"

Shikamaru looked down at the girl. Honestly, he didn't want that to happen as that would mean, he would have to deal with her again. All in all, Naruto made the right judgement call, "Nevermind. Are you going to go after Lee?"

Naruto looked at him, "Of course. I'm the back-up." And he had now backed up three-fifths of this team. If he had sent a clone with Neji, who had gone off after Kiba, it would have been four-fifths, but hey, beggars can't be choosers.

Shikamaru looked down on the unmoving redhead, "I would go with you, but I'd be more of a hindrance than any sort of help." The pineapple haired chunin evaluated himself. What had transpired in these few short hours had woken him to the reality that he wasn't really ready to be a chunin-level ninja, "I'll take her back to the village. Maybe the T&I Division will get more use out of her than us."

Naruto nodded, "Alright, stay safe and bind her or something." The blonde suggested as he immediately took off once more in pursuit of Sasuke.

Shikamaru watched Naruto's retreating back, "Yes, because I was just going to carry her back as she was." That would have been just asinine, "...Damn, I should have asked him to create a couple of clones." Cause that would have cut the workload he was about to do by 100%.

And that would have been awesome.

XxX

Naruto landed in a clearing where he saw Lee facing off against a fairly pale young man with straight white hair dressed in the same robes as the others. Lee was doing fairly well for himself before his opponent started to seemingly eject bones out of his body.

"Bushy-brows!" Naruto cried out as he ran towards the fight and tried to land a flying kick on Kimimaro who merely rolled out of the way.

"More trash?" The pale-haired young man stated as he looked at Naruto apathetically, "Seems like I'll have to dispose of Tayuya after I'm done with you."

Naruto growled as he looked at Kimimaro. Something about how he referred to his comrades, probably the whole 'disposing' thing irked him the wrong way, "Well, try to dispose of her when I'm done with you!" Yeah...that didn't come out as good as he wanted it too.

Being witty was never one of Naruto's strong points.

"Naruto-kun!" Lee said in a lively tone, ignoring the fact that he had nearly been skewered just mere moments ago, "It's good to see you!"

"Good to see you too Bushy-brows." Naruto returned in kind as he backed off to stand in a protective manner in front of the taijutsu expert, "Where's Sasuke?" He questioned as he looked around for his estranged teammate.

Lee merely frowned as he got to his feet and stood beside Naruto, "That is the strangest of all Naruto-kun. Sasuke-kun emerged from that coffin," He said as he waved towards a rather large circular wooden coffin, "I thought he would turn and head back towards Konoha, instead he laughed most unyouthfully and continued for the border."

"What?" Naruto asked in surprise, with accompanying eyebrows raised too. Sasuke just continued going for the border? If he was taken without his permission he wouldn't have gone straight for the border would he?

A frown came across Naruto's face as the thought dawned on him that Sasuke might have willingly left the village. But why would he do that? He doubted their little tiff was enough to drive him away from the place he was practically adored by everyone.

"I know. I was most surprised by his reaction too."

Naruto growled to himself as his eyes darted between Kimimaro and the border. The guy in front of him looked strong, probably stronger than the other people he had fought when he was making his way here. He couldn't leave Lee to fight this guy alone.

...But some part of him was screaming at him to leave this person to Lee and go after Sasuke and question him over what he was doing. Even if his questions where being directed towards a battered and bruised body.

Seemingly, Lee noticed the confliction Naruto was facing and stood in front of him, "Naruto-kun, you pursue Sasuke-kun." He set himself up with one hand in front and the other folded behind his back, "I shall handle this most unyouthful person."

Naruto blinked as he looked at Lee, "Are you sure about that Lee?" The blonde queried with slight worry and shame in his voice, "He looks pretty tough." The fact that he seemingly couldn't careless about them talking in front of them, even the openings they had revealed when conversing with each, which he didn't take advantage off spoke volumes of his confidence in his skills.

Lee smirked as his eyebrows narrowed slightly, "He's a taijutsu fighter like me. I would like to see which is stronger, his fighting style or mine."

In other words, Naruto was completely out of his league here and therefore was not needed.

The problem was that the blonde was primarily a close-range fighter. Sure he had been working on increasing the amount of jutsus in his repertoire that gave him range, but they were still works in progress and the ones he had learned were more supportive than direct, try and put you out of the fight sort of jutsus.

Naruto gave a reluctant nod, "Alright. If you say so." The blonde said with a nod of the head as he headed for the border past Kimimaro who didn't even bother to turn his attention towards him. To save some face, Naruto liked to think it was because he had put a large amount of space between him and Kimimaro rather than the fact Kimimaro didn't count him as a threat.

"You didn't attack him." Lee commented.

"You would have taken advantage of the opening presented to you if I made to attack him." Kimimaro was primarily a close-range fighter. He had a long-range attack, but he was unsure whether it would hit and aiming at the blonde would have given the strange boy in front of him an opening to attack.

And he had shown to be rather fast on his feet.

Therefore it was seemingly best to let the blonde one pass. And anyway, he had faith in the man his master had chosen to become his next host. Orochimaru wouldn't choose some weakling for a host.

Kimimaro cocked his head to the side as a bone jutted out of his shoulder blade, "Shall we begin?"

A bead of nervous sweat rolled down Lee's brow, "I think so."

XxX

He felt rather good.

Good? No, he didn't feel good.

He felt morethan good.

He felt great.

...And _invincible_.

And he hadn't even tapped into the full power of his gift. Now if there was only a way to test out how much more powerful he was now, that would make his day.

"SASUKE!"

And his day was made.

The raven-haired Uchiha let a smirk come across his lips as he looked down at his reflection in the water streaming down the river. Black flame like markings covering the left side of his face with his left eye now gold in colour with black sclera.

A small price to pay for his power.

"I was wondering when you were going to get here dobe." He knew he would come. There was no way Naruto would not be involved in his retrieval. He might have liked to fool himself that he was all grown-up with his promotion. But he wasn't fooling anybody, especially him.

He still held a spot of something inside him.

Naruto came to a skidding halt at the top of the statue that faced another statue with a long mane of wild hair, "What the hell do you think you are doing!?" It was obvious what he was doing. He really shouldn't have bothered to ask that question.

"Heh…" Sasuke let out as he looked up from the rushing water to finally face Naruto, "I'm finally walking my own path."

Naruto was startled by the appearance of his former teammate as he looked at Sasuke, "And here I thought you were ugly before." He couldn't help but crack some sort of joke during this tense time. It helped to lighten up the tense atmosphere that was weighing in on the area.

"Are you going to crack jokes from there or are you going to come here and fight me?" That was the whole reason he had stayed here instead of going on past the border and to Orochimaru. He wanted to fight the ninja in front of him ever since he had woken up from his coma.

He wanted to see where he stood with Naruto, as much as he loathe to admit that he now measured himself with the deadlast of the Academy that had shown not even a modicum of talent in the Shinobi Arts.

Naruto bared his teeth as he glared at Sasuke, "I'll crack how many jokes I want." The blonde remarked, "I'm going to give you one chance Sasuke. Get your head together and get back to Konoha." And maybe then, he won't have to suffer the death penalty or life imprisonment for defection and probably treason now that he thought about it.

Sasuke was so lucky the Godaime and some other higher-ups seemingly had a soft spot for Naruto who would be more than willing to annoy the hell out of them to at least reduce whatever punishment he would receive for pulling this stunt.

Sasuke smirked as he tilted his head to the side slightly, "Make me."

"It will be a pleasure." Someone had to finally knock some sense into him. And being the gracious humanitarian that he was, Naruto was more than willing to do it.

And the fact that he wouldn't get into any sort of trouble if he roughed him up too much, that was just the icing on the cake.

* * *

**AN: Sort of, might have broken my hand and it will be out of commission for a while. That's the reason for the short chapter. **

**Try typing for extended periods of time with one hand, it gets tedious after a while.**

**Anyway, Sasuke vs Naruto next! Yay(!)**

**Don't worry, it won't follow canon, or will it?**

**Leave a review.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. That sucks balls so much. I wish I did. The money would be awesome.**

* * *

(Hokage's Office - Konoha)

"What did you say?" Kakashi asked with his visible lone eye widened in a mixture of surprise and shock with his hands planted on the Kage's ornate desk, "So only those five rookies went after Sasuke?"

Tsunade looked at him, rather surprised by the rather visible reaction from the mostly placid jounin, "No, six. I sent Naruto as back-up after he crawled out of whatever hole he was in." That hole being that he had spend the majority of yesterday training himself into a stupor until he passed out and then going straight to the Sarutobi compound to spend some time with Hiruzen.

Speaking of which, she should probably notify the wizened old man about the Uchiha situation, 'If he already doesn't know.' She thought absentmindedly.

"Naruto?" Kakashi repeated as he heard the name of the student he hadn't seen since his promotion to chunin. Speaking of which, he should probably get the young blonde a present for his promotion. Asuma had done something similar, and if a lazy guy like Asuma would get something for his students, clan traditions notwithstanding, he should be able to do something, "Just Naruto?"

Even though the group of ninja Tsunade had dispatched after them were clearly talented and had bright futures, Orochimaru just wouldn't just send anyone to retrieve Sasuke. Instead, the twisted ninja would definitely send someone that he had an ounce of belief in their ability to finish the job.

Tsunade rested her elbows on her table and linked her hands together as she continued to look at the masked jounin, "There was no other available ninja. Given the current situation we're going through, we've hit the mercenary minimum without dipping into the reserves or other essential divisions."

"Hmm…" Kakashi hummed as he looked down at the floor in thought. He didn't think for long as he immediately turned around and made for the door.

"Hey!" Tsunade called out as she raised up a piece of paper, "Where do you think you're going? I already have your next mission ready!"

Kakashi lazily waved behind him in a dismissive manner, "Eh, I'll take care of this." He reached the door and placed a hand on the knob, "When I come back, I'll do it then." He finished as he opened the door and left before closing it gently behind him.

Tsunade looked at the door before relaxing in her chair and sighing. Konoha probably had the most relaxed regulations and ninjas. It seemed like no-one took orders seriously in this institution unless it was absolutely necessary.

Kakashi probably won't even receive a disciplinary hearing about this. Oh well, it was this lax system that had allowed her to do whatever she wanted for nearly twenty years without labelling her a missing-nin.

She couldn't really judge.

XxX

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!"

With a large puff of smoke, several dogs appeared in front of Kakashi who was standing at the main entrance of Konoha. He looked down at the dogs, "Alright, firstly, go off in all directions and get Naruto and Sasuke's scents." The dogs barked in acknowledgement of the order, "When you get the scent, call out and keep going." They barked once more before the ninja hounds disappeared into the surrounding area to carry out their tasks.

Kakashi stood there in silence, for once, his favourite reading material not out to be seen. He reminisced about his two male ninjas, 'Where could I have gone wrong?' It was pointless to think about it. Sasuke had left to seek power on his own path, 'I should have done something after the hospital...'

He didn't get anymore time to think of the things he could have done differently as a howl rang out in the distance. Kakashi immediately got his game face on, 'Ok. No time to think. Time to act.' He thought as he jumped off into the distance.

XxX

In the woods, miles away from the river he had fallen into from the top of the ravine, a bloody and bruised Kiba sat leaning against a tree. Cradled in his arms was an injured and unconscious Akamaru, he growled to himself as he saw the unmoving body, 'If only I had been stronger! Akamaru wouldn't be in this position!' A thoughtful look came onto his face, 'I can't beat anyone. I lost to Naruto and I couldn't even beat these guys. What am I doing?'

He winced in pain as he placed a hand onto the wound he had inflicted on himself in a bid to injure one of his enemies who had tried to kill him with some sort of parasitic jutsu. He was far too injured and had lost too much blood to run any further.

"So you stopped running?" Kiba growled as he saw the connected brothers, Sakon and Ukon walking towards him, "You were really bothersome to kill you know?"

Oh Kiba would have just loved it if he had managed to take one of these guys down, "Well, it was good while it lasted, huh?" He chuckled humorlessly. If he was going to die, he might as well crack as many jokes as he could. And no-one would question him on how dark the jokes were.

Battlefield jokes tended to be on the dark side anyway.

The two sound ninja merely stalked towards Kiba, Sakon with a sadistic smirk on his lips as he neared the young Inuzuka to finish the job, a familiar puppet rushed onto the scene, chattering and scattering the two brothers away from each other to dodge.

"Man, how did we lose to you guys? I mean, you guys need back-up to beat these chumps."

"I take offence at that. Naruto may have helped me in my fight, but I was far from defeated."

Kiba looked at the source of the voices to see Kankuro and Neji entering the fray, "Whatever. I have to say though, those eyes of yours are pretty handy." The puppeteer remarked as he recalled his puppet Karasu back at him.

"I like to think so to." Neji said in agreement with his Byakugan activated and ready for a fight. Even though he didn't register it, he was still slightly offended by what Kankuro had said and wanted to prove a point by defeating at least one of the ninja in front of him.

The two formerly connected brothers eyed the two ninjas with the more talkative Sakon voicing their joint opinion, "Who the fuck are you?" Because by the hitai-ate he was spotting, he was certainly not from the pathetic village that had spawned the dog kid and the white-eyes.

Kankuro smirked down at the two ninja, "Name's Sabaku no Temari. A shinobi of Sunagakure, ally of Konohagakure and here to kill you both."

A groan from Kiba attracted their attention, "You should go check out dog boy. I'll handle these guys." Kankuro suggested.

"He'll be fine." Neji coolly replied, "His wound didn't pierce anything vital."

Kankuro just glanced at Neji with a raised eyebrow, "That's cold." Weren't Konoha ninjas all for camaraderie and all that? Leaving a wounded fellow shinobi on the sidelines didn't seem like something they would do.

Neji shook his head in the contrary, "I rather not give our enemies a chance to attack me whilst I'm tending to him." He wasn't a medic-nin. Sure, he had the Byakugan and could see for 360 degrees around him, but that didn't mean he would leave anything to fate. Fate wasn't his thing anymore, "And anyway, he's fine, aren't you Kiba?"

Kiba raised a bloody thumbs up and grinned slightly, "I'm just dandy right here. Kick their butt for me Neji, get one for Konoha." The whole 'Konoha is trash' thing that the two brothers and sound ninjas in general had had been getting to him. It would be just fantastic for him to see them get their asses kicked by some Konoha 'trash' and it would have been even more fantastic if he had dished out some of that ass-kicking.

Ah well, maybe another time.

Kankuro shrugged his shoulders, "Suit yourself." He simply said before springing into action himself by flicking a finger and causing a puppet that had been buried in the ground behind Ukon to spring up and entrap him inside the puppet.

"Ukon!" Sakon cried out when he saw his brother get trapped. The brother immediately made way to rescue his brother only to be cut off by Neji who appeared in front of him.

"You're within my divination." Neji merely stated as he lowered himself into his stance, "Hakke Rokujuyon Sho (Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms)!" The Hyuuga genius then proceeded to deliver sixty-four palm strikes to the Oto ninja, each strike increasing in speed and strength than the last.

Kiba watched with rapt attention as his two allies quickly managed to defeat the two brothers he had trouble fighting against him. He winced slightly when he saw Kankuro finish of the other brother. One of his puppets had been drilled with blades from the other.

He was definitely sure Neji had seen that entire gruesome execution, with his Byakugan being active and all...with 360 degree vision and _x-ray_ vision to boot. Must have sucked badly for him.

Kiba looked at the two ninjas as they made their way towards him, with victorious looks on their faces, "...Yeah, you wouldn't have won if I hadn't softened them up for you."

Kankuro smirked down to the younger ninja, "Sure kid, whatever you tell yourself to get to sleep." He remarked offhandedly, amusement in his voice as in the back, blood dripped out of his Kuroari (Black Ant) puppet, "So how are you?"

Kiba grunted as he tried to get up, "I'm fine." And promptly failing as he fell back onto the ground on his backside.

"Hmm...you don't look fine." Neji remarked dryly, "Your wound isn't serious. We just have to be careful with it...and probably do something about the bleeding whilst we're at it." He said as he deactivated his eyes. He had done his job and he didn't want to see the brother stuffed into a puppet and impaled with various sharp and pointy things.

Kankuro hummed in thought before getting a great idea, "I know, we can put him inside Kuroari and carry him back to Konoha." He shared with the group.

"That is a good idea." Neji said in agreement. Movement was clearly out of the realm of ability of Kiba at the moment, and carrying him himself might do some damage and also get blood on his persons.

Kiba didn't think so, "That is a horrible idea." He pointed at the puppet he was sure he would be stuffed in, "You just made a human voodoo doll inside there. There's like blood and guts all over the place. I'm not getting into that!"

Kankuro sighed, "Fine, I'll wash it out in the river then." He turned and walked towards the river, "What a baby. Scared of a little blood." He said underneath his breath.

"I heard that! There's guts and pieces of person inside that thing!"

XxX

Naruto never really paid attention in the academy. Most of the time, he was either trying to stay awake, or when that failed, sleeping or even just missing classes to go cause some mischief of some sort throughout the village. Because let's face it, the academy was boring and Naruto hated boring. It meant that he could be doing something awesome instead of boring.

As he stood atop the head of probably the largest fucking statue of any single person he would ever see in his entire fucking life, he couldn't help but note, he should know this place and that something about what was going to happen should be ringing all sorts of bells of the ironic kind in his mind.

But then again, Naruto barely grasped the basic understanding of irony that mostly included observations of the weather and saying something along the lines of 'Oh, what a nice day it is.' when it was positively and utterly chucking it down.

Ah well, he would probably figure out what was ironic about this place some other time. Right now, he had a job to do and a mission to complete. Technically, his mission had been completed when he had served as back-up to the rest of the Sasuke Retrieval Squad and out of his own need and desire, he had just gone off after Sasuke himself.

...Damn, pursuing your own objective wasn't exactly the mark of a professional now was it? No, no it wasn't. Maybe he could play it than his original mission boundaries also encompassed this little streak of his own desire?

Yeah...he could definitely do that. After all, the entirety of the retrieval squad had their own things to handle and he had been the only one left to take down Sasuke...yeah, that would definitely work. And anyway, when he brought Sasuke back, it really wouldn't matter that he had gone off on his own now would it?

No, no it wouldn't.

But that was another thought for a different time, right now, he was about to get into a potentially hazardous fight with his former, wayward teammate. Naruto slowly clenched and unclenched his hands as he tensed himself ready for a fight.

Standing across him, Sasuke continued to look at him. He hadn't even bothered to set himself in any sort of stance. He just stood there, an arrogant looking smirk on his face.

Naruto was the first to move as he cleared the large stream of rushing water separating them with a single leap. Sasuke only looked up to follow Naruto's trajectory before raising a fist and bringing it back, ready strike Naruto with it.

When Naruto started to descend upon him, the young Uchiha unleashed his cocked back fist only for Naruto to twist his body in mid-air to avoid the punch and crash into him. Sasuke gritted his teeth as he took the majority of the damage as slid back on the statue several feet, tearing into his back.

Coming to a halt with Naruto pinning down his body as he sat on his torso, Sasuke felt a punch land on his cheek, "Did that wake you up yet?" Naruto demanded as he brought his fist back and went to hit the Uchiha once more, "Because I have way more of that where they came from!"

Naruto laid into him several more times before Sasuke managed to free up an arm and grab the fist that had been repeatedly pounding into his face. His opponent was rather surprised by the fact that Sasuke had been able to stop his punch easily and even more due to the fact he found himself struggling in a clash of strength.

'What the hell is going on?' Naruto thought as he grit his teeth in determination as he continued to try and will his fist to move forward and break the hold Sasuke had on it, 'I've always been the stronger of the two of us physically.'

That was true. Naruto had always been the heavy hitting muscle of Team 7. Naruto knew that he wasn't the same type of shinobi like Sasuke, Neji, Kakashi and others. The type of shinobi that was heavily reliant on skill, finesse and speed. He knew that because he didn't have skill, finesse or speed. But he had been working on that, but all in all, he knew he was the same type of shinobi like Jiraiya.

The 'power' type shinobi so to speak.

The type that would just overwhelm with sheer power rather than going at it with precision-like skill. He knew that because he had lots of strength for someone his age group. The only one who could claim to be stronger than him would be Chouji. And the young Akimichi probably was.

That's why the fact he was struggling to push against Sasuke's hold was utterly confused and puzzled him. This just wasn't possible. Sasuke's body wasn't designed for strength. It just wasn't possible.

Sasuke on the other hand was rather amazed at how easily he was holding back Naruto's fist in the clash of strength. He knew for a fact that Naruto was the stronger of the two physically and for the fact that he was easily able to hold back the blonde's fist rectified that he was making the right decision leaving Konoha for Orochimaru, if this was just a tiny glimpse of what he could be able to do with the limited control of the Curse Seal on his neck.

Smirking to himself in amazement, he easily swatted away the hand, unbalancing Naruto and allowing Sasuke to go for Naruto's throat. The Uchiha grasped the blonde's neck and slowly started to strangle him as he slowly started to get to his feet.

He was doing all this whilst with one hand, and with the boost of the Curse Seal, he was even able to lift the blonde of the ground with the very same arm he was using to strangle him, 'Dammit!' Naruto cursed as he struggled for air, 'Is this happening because of those stupid markings on his face?' Even though they were different, they seemed to be the same as that girl he and Shikamaru had fought. When the lines started showing up, even he could tell that she was slowly getting more powerful as they spread across her body.

Not being one into slowly strangled, Naruto lashed out with a kick that caught a surprised Sasuke in his abdomen, forcing him to release Naruto as the air was kicked out of him as he flew backwards before coming to a halt a few feet away on the top of the statue.

Sasuke looked up and glared at Naruto as he took in deep breaths of air as he slowly got up from the ground, "Do you even know what you're doing?" He heard Naruto question him as he fully stood up and patted away the dust on his clothes.

"Of course." That was the simple answer he replied to the blonde. Of course he knew what he was doing. He was finally walking on the path he was made to walk that night years ago. And if that path meant walking away from Konoha and discarding the village, then he was more than willing to do that.

"Ha! And I thought you were supposed to be some kind of genius!" The blonde growled at Sasuke, "You're leaving all our friends back in Konoha to willingly go join the person who had attacked our home and tried to kill the Sandaime. That's not very smart!" Naruto finished as he rushed at Sasuke.

Sasuke was caught flat-footed as he found himself rather surprised at the speed Naruto had moved to close the distance between the two. Because of that, he managed to catch another fist to the face and then another before he managed to get his bearings before blocking another strike and depositing his own fist into the blonde's stomach.

Once more, Naruto found himself surprised at Sasuke's increased strength as he spit out blood, "I don't really care about your opinion dobe. It's worthless to me." Sasuke coldly stated, with his fist still in Naruto's abdomen before hefting him into the air before landing a back kick that sent Naruto crashing into the waters travelling in the middle of the valley.

Sasuke slowly made his way towards the edge of the statue to look down at the river below that he had sent Naruto into, still amazed at the power he was receiving from the curse seal, even though he hadn't accessed the full available power of it.

He winced slightly in pain as the Curse Seal started deactivating and felt the initial rush of power leave him, but leaving him with some of the power, 'This is amazing...' He thought, 'If I accessed all of it...Itachi...' He trailed off as he thought about all the possibilities he could do with the power of the Curse Seal.

He smirked when he saw Naruto emerge from the water. Even though from their initial clash, he could tell that the power he was receiving from the 'gift' Orochimaru had given him was simply brilliant, he wanted to test it out some more.

To see just how far he could go.

'Okay, I'm guessing talking is over then.' Naruto thought as he stood upon the river with the aid of chakra, 'He's not going to listen to anything I say.' That nearly brought a small smile onto the blonde's lips. The whole Sasuke ignoring what he said sort of reminded him of his time back in Team 7 where the vast majority of his opinions were often ignored simply because they were stupid and just downright dumb.

'Wait, this isn't the time for remiscenting.' Naruto thought as he steeled himself, 'I've got a job to do and a fight to win.' He finished as he rushed off towards Sasuke.

Sasuke decided to move into action to as he stepped of the head of the statue to beginning falling to the waters below. The two ex-teammates met in midair, with Naruto having his fist coiled back, ready to hit Sasuke with it.

Sasuke saw the arm move back for a punch and managed to twist his body around the punch before catching Naruto in the face with his foot, causing him to caroon out of control through the air. The blonde though managed to catch himself in the air through the use of the Kage Bunshin as he used the clone to create a platform to launch himself off back at Sasuke.

The Uchiha didn't see that little bit of improvisation coming and for his troubles found himself on the end of a two-footed kick to his chest. Sasuke crashed into the long-haired statue before stopping himself from falling to the waters below by planting himself on the surface of the statue with chakra.

Naruto landed on the hand of the statue he had sent Sasuke flying into before jumping at him once more, he didn't want to give the Uchiha any reprieve from what he perceived as a beating that he had been needing for the majority of his life.

Sasuke's face was set in a cold and calm manner as he saw Naruto coming at him and was more than obliged to meet him once more in a midair clash. This time, Sasuke was set for any tricks or surprises that Naruto would conjure up as they neared each other.

The two clashed in the air, with both ninjas being able to block each others respective attacks. Not wanting to get into another test of strength, Naruto quickly moved himself to separate from Sasuke before creating several clones that made a human ladder before grabbing Sasuke's ankles and swinging him into the opposite statue, with a cloud of dust being made on the point of contact.

The blonde knew that Sasuke had definitely felt that but didn't let off as his clones separated themselves and immediately rushed towards the part of the statue they had hurled Sasuke at.

"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu)!"

A volley of fireballs from the dust cloud met the clones before they even reached the dust cloud, and started dispelling all of them with extreme prejudice. With the last of the clones destroyed, the sounds of birds chirping joined the roar of the waterfall as one of the sounds in the valley.

Naruto knew for a fact that the birds chirping went really birds as he had seen the jutsu Sasuke was about to use before. He also knew that the jutsu was meant for one thing. And the thought saddened him much to his surprise.

Was Sasuke so serious that he was actually willing to use a jutsu that only has the sole purpose to kill? He might as well be announcing to the world that he was more than willing to kill Naruto in this fight.

He grit his teeth in anger and disappointment as he brought out his hand and started forming his own close-range jutsu. He had been working on his chakra control relentlessly ever since he made chunin and it had progressed enough to the point that he could utilize the the Yondaime's jutsu without the need of a clone to help him form the jutsu.

From the dust cloud that had just started to dissipate, sparks of electricity arced out before Sasuke blurred out from the statue as he ran down its length from where he had been sent flying into. He was nothing more than a blue and white blur as he ran towards Naruto with intent to run him through with the Chidori.

Naruto, with his own jutsu at the ready also blurred his way towards the Uchiha, himself also nothing but a blur. Both young shinobi extended their arms at the same time when they neared each other before both of their A-ranked jutsus clashed with each other.

"Rasengan (Spiralling Sphere)!"

"Chidori (One Thousand Birds)!"

When the two jutsus met each other, a concussive force was expelled, pushing away the water beneath Sasuke and Naruto as electricity arced out from the Chidori and streams of chakra whipped around from the Rasengan.

The two young shinobi's faces both showed strain as they tried to push against each other to win this duel. After seemingly being caught in suspended animation for ages as they continued to try and overpower each other, the two separated when they were both sent flying away from each other as the two jutsus finally exploded on them.

Naruto was sent flying down the waterfall whilst Sasuke once more found himself crashing into one of the statues. Sasuke growled lowly to himself as he removed himself from the statue and made his way towards the water's edge.

He hadn't been expecting such a difficult fight against Naruto with the power that he was granted. It should have been much easier than this. Just how far had Naruto come from being the dead last of the Academy to someone who would push him this much in a fight? It just wasn't possible.

He came to a halt as he looked down into the water's below, looking for any sign of Naruto. His attention was gained when he saw the blonde slowly rise out of the water, no worse for wear.

Sasuke glared down at Naruto before freely letting the Curse Seal spread over his body. Feeling the rush of power that came with the seal, he immediately sped through hand signs for a jutsu, trying to get Naruto whilst he was still unaware of his surroundings, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!"

A large fireball was spat out of the Uchiha's mouth and roared as it sped towards Naruto, intent on engulfing him in flames and letting him die a fiery death. Naruto wasn't having any of it though as he rolled out of the way of the fireball.

Instead of hitting Naruto, it hit the water and with that, it caused a resounding amount of steam to be created, enshrouding Naruto and blocking his view of Sasuke. Even if his sight was blocked, he wouldn't have needed it as something at the back of his head told him that it was probably the best for him to move away from the mist as fast as possible.

Naruto followed the feeling and ran in a random direction away from the mist. It was a good thing to as the area he had vacated, in fact the entire mist covered area was being peppered by a volley of fireballs, 'Hosenka no Jutsu probably.' Naruto thought as he evaded any fireballs that came near him. It was a good thing that he could hear the fireballs moving through the air and that he could tell when they were coming towards him.

Finally having gotten tired of the mist, the blonde went through hand seals and faced the general direction of the waterfall and where the fireballs were coming from, "Futon: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)!"

Naruto understood the basics of the elemental chakra natures enough to know that wind fanned the flames of fire and thus by all amounts, using a wind jutsu against a fire jutsu was just plain stupid in the case he fanned the fire jutsu to even more dangerous degree. But he had also read enough to know that only worked if the jutsu being used was weaker in terms of chakra put into it.

Naruto had chakra to spare and thus had pumped a lot of that chakra into this basic wind jutsu. And the results were absolutely fantastic. The mist was blown away, the fireballs were snuffed out by the gale-force winds and Naruto smiled to himself in bliss as he saw Sasuke get sent flying into the waterfall as he had decided to jump down from the top of the waterfall.

Giving the same reprieve Sasuke had given him, Naruto created several clones that immediately charged towards the base of the waterfall whilst the original stayed in the back ready for any sort of retaliatory action by Sasuke.

He was caught by surprise when Sasuke emerged from the water underneath him to land a uppercut on his chin. Naruto stumbled backwards as he reeled himself in from the damage. Whilst this was occurring his clones had realised what was going on and had immediately turned around to come back at the Uchiha with kunais drawn.

Sasuke saw them coming and having decided that playtime was over, he had activated his Sharingan, quickly managed to dip into Naruto's supply pouch and pull out a kunai for himself before turning around and engaging the clones.

With the Curse Seal freely spread across his body and with his Sharingan activated, the clones didn't stand much of a chance, even though they fought with some rather impeccable coordination on their part.

When he finished dispelling the last of the clones, the Uchiha turned around to face the original only to catch a fist to the face which was quickly followed by another and then a kick to his chin that lifted him off the ground as he flew through the air.

Catching himself in the air, Sasuke spun and threw the kunai he had poached from Naruto to stop his advance. Which it did as Naruto had to bring out one of his wakizashi to blonde the metal object.

This gave Sasuke the chance to land safely on the water with some breathing space and time to speed through hand seals once more, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

Naruto saw the fireball coming at him and quickly diverted to the side to avoid the path the fireball was travelling on.

Sasuke immediately regretted and started cursing to himself at having thrown the kunai he had pilfered off at Naruto before or he had brought suitable supplies with him, because he was really in need of a kunai or even a shuriken would have done as he found himself on the retreat as Naruto came at him with his dual wielded wakizashi.

Sasuke barely managed to dodge a slash that was aimed to take away the top of his head, 'Dammit...I have to get those swords of him or disarm one for myself.' Easier said than done as he dodged another strike that could have proven to be fatal to him as he continued to be pushed back by Naruto, 'I can't fight him like this.'

Sasuke bit back a groan of pain as he felt Naruto cut into him in the chest due to the result of a cross-slash from the blonde. He quickly decided to take the chance given to him to get a hit on Naruto before he brought his blades back-up to continue his attack.

He lifted up both of his legs and placed them on Naruto's forearms, obstructing the blonde from lifting his arms back up, leaned back as he took in air and went through hand seals before leaning forward and spewing out a torrent of flames from his mouth, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

Naruto's eyes widened in abject horror when he saw the seals Sasuke was going through and had been quick enough to immediately cancel the chakra he was streaming to the sole of his feet to stay atop the water to immediately drop underneath.

That quick thinking was enough to save him from becoming a human barbecue but he hadn't escaped from the jutsu unscathed as he could feel that some of the skin around the right side of his face and neck was singed, 'Bastard probably burned some of my hair.'

Flipping himself over in the water, the blonde channeled chakra to his feet once more before launching himself to the surface of the water.

Sasuke had taken it upon himself to quickly move away from the water and stood on one of the adjacent cliff walls overlooking the river with his hands set firmly in a tiger seal as he prepared to fire off more fire jutsus to make sure Naruto kept his distance. It was a basic plan, but it was better than having to deal with the blonde up close without a weapon for himself.

He didn't have to wait long as with his eyes, he quickly saw a shadowed object nearing the surface of the water before it shot out straight at him, that was all the invitation he needed, "Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu!"

The moment he had launched himself out of the water, Naruto had immediately thought what a bad idea it was. It made him a sitting duck as he travelled through the air. And he was right, Sasuke had used that chance to pick him off, with those annoying fire jutsus of his. He was just glad it hadn't been the Goukakyuu no Jutsu either wise that would have really, _really _sucked.

Naruto let out a sigh of sweet relief as he felt the cold waters of the river go over his burn wounds as he slowly emerged from the river. He put a hand to the rather sizeable burn wound located on the lower half of his abdomen, putting pressure on it as he looked at Sasuke, "Seems like we're one for one." He said, indicating Sasuke's rather obvious 'x' shaped wound on his chest.

"Hn." Sasuke merely granted out a response as he pulled on the power of the Curse Seal some more, with the flame-like markings now encompassing his entire body, "I think I'm going to return the favour then."

Naruto scoffed, "And how are you going to do that?" He smiled smugly as he stood atop the water, "I think I've been winning this entire fight."

"Don't kid yourself you loser." Sasuke said with a slight sour look to his face, "You weren't winning anything." If he had a kunai of some sort, then this fight would have ended long ago. Those swords of his were starting to-wait a second...he wasn't holding them anymore, 'The hit from my jutsu must have shocked him into dropping them.' Not deciding to turn his head away from this gift horse, Sasuke immediately launched himself at Naruto.

Naruto saw Sasuke coming and immediately braced himself as Sasuke caught him with a body tackle that sent both of them underwater. The two grappled with each other underwater as they tried to land significant hits on each other, which was made difficult by the water resistance.

Both running out of air, they disengaged from each other and quickly swam to the surface. Both surfaced at the same time to stand atop the water, "Seems like we're a bit even." Naruto remarked as he wiped some water away from his eyes.

"Hn." It wasn't going to be even for long as far as Sasuke was concerned. He quickly went through three hand-seals before electricity crackled in his hand once more before shooting off in the direction of Naruto, "Chidori!".

Naruto was a bit taken aback by the sudden action from Sasuke and was caught slightly flat-footed as the hand impaled through his chest. Sasuke smirked slowly in victory before his eyes widened when Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke.

An explosion of water happened behind him as Naruto revealed himself as he had been hiding in the water during the entirety of the confrontation, "Got you know Sasuke!" The blonde declared as he brought down one of his swords in a diagonal slash.

Sasuke grit his teeth as he reacted fast enough to move his head back slightly to avoid it getting split into two. But this action didn't save him from any damage as he received a cut that went from the top right of his forehead and travelled perfectly diagonal on his face and stopped just an inch away from the corner of his lips.

"GAH!" Sasuke let out a scream of pain as he stumbled back and clutched his face in a bid to dampen the pain. He cast a bloody glare at Naruto with his doujutsu at Naruto. He could tell that the wound he had received was a bloody one and one that wasn't going to heal properly. That was definitely going to leave a scar.

In his rage, Sasuke charged up a Chidori once more, his limited two shots having increased due to the power of the Curse Seal. Naruto saw him coming and quickly tried to stop the charge coming from the dark-haired teen with a sword slash to put some space between them. Instead he was surprised when Sasuke swung his Chidori at the blade and somehow managed to snap it in two with the jutsu and then proceeded to plunge it straight into Naruto's chest. Much to the shocked blonde's surprise.

XxX

"Peace and quiet." Shikamaru muttered as he flew through the trees as he headed for Konoha, "Thank fucking kami."

Of course this was in reference to the package he was currently slugging over his shoulder as he jumped from tree to tree. Tayuya had woken up, an hour or so after Naruto had knocked her out. How she had quickly gained consciousness after the beating Naruto gave her was a mystery to him.

She must have been spotting a concussion or something at least.

The moment she had got herself together, she had started calling them every foul mouthed word under the sun. Even words he didn't even know existed. From limp dicked transsexuals to every other kind of rapist that apparently existed, she just kept bitching him out.

Eventually, he got bored of the whole thing before taking the cap she wore and stuffing it into her mouth. He never knew the sound of his feet hitting and jumping off tree branches was so fulfilling.

With the silence, Shikamaru couldn't help himself but think, since that was one of the few things he could do at the moment since his apparent mission was completed, 'The mission went to hell far faster than I thought it would. My formation was useless, we ended up getting split-up to face individual opponents.' He suppressed a shudder as a grimace came onto his face, 'I don't even want to think what would have happened if Naruto hadn't shown up.' The level of opponents they had fought demanded at least two against one to win. Maybe not so much in Neji and Lee's case since they were the best fighters of the group, but that wasn't an excuse.

They were still genin and these guys had to be least jounin level ninja or very, very skilled chunin level ninja.

His attention was taken away from his reflective thoughts as he heard rustling of leaves. He set Tayuya down much to the redheads continued cursing and griping through her gag. Shikamaru readied himself for a fight only for Temari to appear opposite him, "I finally caught up to you." She remarked offhandedly as she took stock of the situation, "I see you didn't any back-up then if you took care of her." She said as she indicated towards the tied up Temari who continued to curse at them, "I didn't think you had it in you."

Shikamaru sighed as he relaxed himself, "I beat you remember?" He pointed out as he picked Tayuya up once more.

Temari's eyebrow twitched, "You gave up."

"I still beat you."

Temari growled to him before deciding to take the high-road and looked away, "Hope I'm not interrupting anything or am I?"

Temari jumped to the branch Shikamaru was standing on as her hand was firmly grasped on her tessen. She didn't even sense anyone sneak-up on her.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Shikamaru said as he recognised the voice.

And soon enough, the masked ninja appeared to the group by landing on a branch opposite them along with Pakkun, "The one and only." He said as he looked at the young chunin, "Is that one of the ninjas who took Sasuke?" He asked as he eyed Tayuya's bound form who had suddenly shut-up and had suddenly stopped her grousing.

She was smart enough to keep her mouth shut in the presence of someone like the famed Hatake Kakashi.

Shikamaru nodded wearily, "Yeah, I'm bringing her back to Konoha. Figured she'd be useful for information-gathering purposes." He eyed the jounin who looked surprisingly alert for the usually calm and aloof ninja he was, "Are you our back-up?"

"Something like that." He replied casually, "I take it Naruto and the others are further behind you guys?"

Shikamaru nodded, "Yeah, just keep going towards the border. You'll eventually run into Naruto or Lee and whoever they're fighting against." He scowled slightly as he looked down, "Although I don't know the situation with Kiba or Neji." He didn't know whether both boys were fine. How he would have liked Ino to be here right now. Her telepathy would have come in real handy on getting status updates.

"Don't worry about them." Temari said as she interjected into the conversation, "Kankuro went after your dog-loving friend. Kankuro's strong enough to face whoever his opponent is."

Shikamaru let out a sigh of relief, that was good news as far as he was concerned, "Well, you guys are certainly trying to make-up for betraying us back then."

Temari sighed, not really apologetic about what happened back then, "They were orders. I follow orders." It was just that simple with her. She was anything but a thorough professional with her job, "Hey, where did Kakashi and his dog go?" She asked after finally noticing that the silver-haired ninja and the dog weren't in the area.

Shikamaru looked around before shaking his head, "He probably went off to check-up on the others." Probably Naruto and Sasuke more likely. After all, this mission involved two of his students.

He leapt onto another branch as he continued his journey back home, "Come on, let's go."

Temari nodded and silently followed behind him.

XxX

A myriad of thoughts rushed through Sasuke's head as he was flung into one of the cliff walls with a deafening thud as his body met rock. The impact was strong enough to leave him in a nicely sized crater.

'He should be dead...' Naruto should have been dead. The wound he had given him was vital. There was no doubt about that. A hole the size of a hand through your left lung was vital. There was no getting up from that. Maybe Tsunade could have healed him, but she wasn't here, then how the hell was he still alive?

It didn't make sense.

How could he have regenerative abilities so strong to the point that he could regenerate the majority of an organ in a manner of seconds as quickly as he did? That simply wasn't human or within the bounds of reality. Even with the power and abilities chakra afforded to the user.

It just wasn't.

And what was that red chakra of his? It was vile, evil, dark and filled with so much hate, malice and rage that it couldn't possibly be human. He doubted even Orochimaru's chakra was as dark as that red chakra.

'I can't win...' He groused to himself mentally as he got out of the crater that had been made thanks to him. Now Sasuke wasn't one to admit when he was faced off with a superior opponent. His personality pretty much made it so that whenever he faced off against someone stronger than him, he would still fight against them.

After all, if he couldn't beat this person, how could he beat his brother? The lauded Uchiha prodigy who had managed to slaughter an entire clan of one of the most powerful clans in the world in a single night?

But even now, he was doubting that he could win against Naruto. The punch that had send him flying to create the crater had been strong enough to surely break several of his ribs and probably, definitely deal some internal damage of varying degree.

Just breathing hurt.

That surely meant _something_.

And then there was the fact that his Sharingan couldn't keep up with the movements of Naruto. When that chakra suddenly appeared, it was as if the blonde had been given several syringes of some sort of extremely potent soldier pills.

His famed eyes could only see a blur. That was how fast he was moving.

'No…' He wasn't going to lose. Especially to Naruto. He was finally walking on the path that he wanted to walk. It didn't matter if that path involved walking away from the others and Konoha.

Losing was something that definitely wasn't on the card for him. If he lost, if he lost and was brought back to Konoha, his ambition, his goal of avenging his clan and family by killing his older brother would all but be extinguished.

He was certainly sure that he would receive a prison sentence or execution for what the stunt that he was pulling off. Not many people forgave betrayal, especially betrayal the likes of his; to join a well known criminal with crimes against humanity who has a lot of bad blood in Konoha.

Sasuke exhaled a breath as he stood vertically on the cliff due to the help of chakra. He stared down at Naruto who stood upon the top of the water. He was more feral looking, blood red eyes with slits for pupils, his whisker like birthmarks had darkened and thickened somewhat, his spiky blonde hair was more untamed than before and his nails had grown to become claws and his canines were more pronounced.

Looking at him was like looking at some sort of wild beast that was wearing the skin of a human. Just what had caused the change in him? 'That red chakra.' Sasuke mused to himself as he answered that silent question.

Naruto was the first to move as he took a step forward before disappearing from sight as he blurred forward. The only thing showing that he was actually heading for Sasuke was the wake of water he left behind, which turned into dust as he hit land.

Sasuke's expression was set into one of determination, 'I won't lose. I _will _not lose!' He repeated that mantra to himself. It was at that moment that his world suddenly changed. Somehow, everything became...clearer, more refined so to say.

And with that, Sasuke found himself being able to follow Naruto's movements as he sped towards him. Not only could he follow him, he could also see an image of the next movement he was going to make, 'I can see him now!' He thought as he immediately got himself up for a confrontation, 'Did my Sharingan mature?' That was the only explanation as to how he could now follow the blonde's movement now. The final tomoe of his Sharingan must have activated and along with it, the full capabilities of his Sharingan, 'With this, I'll definitely win!'

Naruto appeared in front of Sasuke, aiming to land a high-kick to the raven haired Uchiha's temple. Instead, he found Sasuke perfectly stepping back away from his kick and then counter-attacking with a kick of his own that send him skidding down the cliff wall.

Naruto gained his footing and took in some deep breaths of air as the kick had knocked the air out of him to look at Sasuke with a perplexed expression. Just what had happened? A few moments ago, Sasuke couldn't cope with him, now he was cooly sliding out of one of his attacks? Just what was going on here? 'It was only one attack.' The blonde surmised as he rushed Sasuke once more, 'Must have been some kind of fluke.'

Well, turns out it wasn't some kind of fluke.

Naruto had gone at Sasuke with everything he had. Even his increased physical capabilities thanks to the chakra of the Kyuubi, he found it quite the arduous task of managing to land a hit on Sasuke.

Sure, in the battle between them as they clashed throughout the Valley of the End, both ninjas had equally landed blow after blow to each other in somewhat equal measures. But now, Naruto could honestly say he was somewhat on the backfoot.

For every punch, kick, knee or any sort of hit he managed to land on Sasuke, the Uchiha repaid it in kind several times over. His movements were more refined, sleeker as he dodged Naruto's attacks without wasting any sort of movement on Sasuke's part.

Sasuke moved his body out of the way of several swipes from Naruto's clawed hands that had caused some damage during the altercation before ducking underneath a kick and then rising himself with a knee to Naruto's chin.

The knee to the chin lifted Naruto off the cliff wall. He was promptly followed by Sasuke who started dealing out kick after kick to the blonde that drove him down to the ground, "Shishi Rendan (Lion Combo)!" He finished as he latched onto Naruto who was upside down and proceeded to descend with him in a piledriver motion.

Naruto blinked when he saw himself hurtling down to the solid rock underneath, 'This is...bad.' Now Naruto would admit that he was hardheaded and many people would say he did have one hard head (Mostly those that would find it fit to hit him on the head if he did anything out of line), but that was only in the metaphorical sense. He didn't particularly want to find out if he actually did have a hard head.

'This is going to suck...' He thought to himself as he took in air. What he was about to do was just plain stupid. Especially since he was far from having mastered his wind element. Doing a jutsu without any hand seals without sufficient mastery over it or the element that it involved was like using a double-edged sword, and that was if what he was about to do actually worked, "Fuuton: Daitoppa!"

The gale of wind released from the blonde's mouth rocketed Naruto and Sasuke from falling down to the rocky surface below, and into the cliff wall, Sasuke conveniently acting as a cushion for the blonde.

Naruto found himself enough room to wiggle away from the hold Sasuke had on him to loosen himself out and and fall to the ground that was just several feet down. The blonde slowly got to his feet as he coughed up blood, 'That really sucked. Must have damaged my throat.' He thought as he looked up at Sasuke who was pulling himself out of another crater that Naruto had made with his body, himself feeling the effects of being sandwiched between Naruto and the rocky wall.

Sasuke looked down and smirked, "Look at yourself," He began as he motioned down at Naruto, Sharingan ablaze, "You look pathetic. Just give up. You're not going to win this."

Naruto chuckled, which was rather difficult as he had to occasionally stop to spit out blood or swallow blood...when was that healing factor of his going to kick in? Cause he was really needing it right now, "I don't know what you're talking about Sasuke. I _am_ going to win this."

Sasuke's eyes furrowed as he looked down at Naruto, "Don't talk shit. You're not going to win anything. Just go back to the village. Why would you even risk coming after me? Surely the higher-ups should have more pressing things to worry about than a rogue genin." A rogue Uchiha genin, but that was here nor there.

"A rogue genin that is about to go join one of Konoha's most notorious traitors." Naruto pointed out helpfully enough, trying to drive in how serious of a deal this was, "And anyway," Naruto said as he shook his head with a rueful smirk on his lips, "I know someone back in Konoha who would be devastated with what you're doing right now."

"Oh, you mean Sakura," Their other teammate. The one he didn't think too highly off due to various reasons, "She already knows. She tried to stop me." If it had been another time, it might have worked. She had managed to reach deep inside him, but this was something he had to do, "It didn't work."

"I can see that." Naruto said as he collected himself from the surprise of that little revelation, "Guess its my turn to try and convince you to come back. But I won't be as gentle as Sakura-chan." Because being gentle just wasn't his thing. He was far too much of a manly man to do gentle.

Sasuke just cast Naruto a dry spell. As if he didn't notice that Naruto wasn't being gentle in his trying to 'convince' him to come back to the village. Nonetheless, he could win now, it was just a matter of seeing how many hits Naruto can take, 'Why does he have to be so durable?' He cursed as he set himself up in his stance.

Naruto looked up with a determined stare as he got ready for another clash. His determination was just a show on the outside, in the inside he was freaking out from here to the moon and back. He had just noticed, but Sasuke's Sharingan had three of those tomoe things. Last time he had seen that spinning red eye, it had two, not three, 'That explains why he's been kicking my ass.' He grimaced mentally. How was he going to deal with that now? He doubted he was fast enough to fight head on with a Sharingan.

'**Kuku...'** A dark chuckle rang out from somewhere, reverberating throughout Naruto's head, '**You're weak aren't you young one? You should thank me for this...you and that Yondaime Hokage…'**

Okay, now he was officially freaked out. Judging by the lack of reaction coming from Sasuke, he clearly hadn't heard that voice coming from somewhere. In fact it felt like it was coming from his head more than anything else.

And why the hell would he be thanking this voice or whatever it was? Just judging by voice along, it sounded like someone you wouldn't trust in a million years.

As soon as that thought left him, Naruto suddenly felt power slowly bubble to the surface followed shortly by an aching pain that caused him to groan in pain as he fell to a knee, "Guh…"

Sasuke just watched in surprise and interest as what seemingly seemed like that red chakra from before bubble to the surface as it encased Naruto. As he watched the ongoing scene he couldn't help but think that he shouldn't have written of the outcome of the fight so easily.

XxX

"This job is going to be the death of me one of these days…" Tsunade mumbled as he rubbed her temple, bottle of sake in hand.

Hiruzen who had taken his time to come visit his successor and former student couldn't help but chuckle, "Really? I rather liked the job to be honest." It meant that he could protect the village and home he loved dearly with everything he got.

Tsunade cast a weak glare at her old teacher, "That's because you actually _wanted_ it." She weakly hissed out, it was far different for her. Some blonde kid had betted her into taking the job. Knowing her luck, she shouldn't have accepted the bet. Hindsight was 20/20 sometimes.

An amused smirk was just plastered on Hiruzen's lips as he smoked his pipe, "Naruto-kun's rendition of how he brought you back says either wise." It was also grossly inflated of the blonde's actions throughout the tale to suit the young ninjas rather sizeable ego.

Tsunade growled at that before settling down. She swivelled in her chair to look in the direction of the border, "Those brats better be alright."

Hiruzen shared the sentiment, "I'm sure they'll be fine. From what I have seen, they're all very talented ninjas." Talented? Yes, but for all he knew, the ninjas they were facing against could be more talented and stronger than them, "And if I'm not correct, Kakashi-kun decided to go after them on his own didn't he?" Kakashi counted as more than enough back-up on his own. He was just that good.

Tsunade nodded before groaning, "Don't remind me. This place has some serious discipline problems." Subordinates couldn't just ignore orders from their superiors like Kakashi had just done. But then again, she really didn't try to assert her point. She had been rather glad Kakashi had gone off on his own after them.

Hiruzen chuckled, "Since you're the Hokage, you should probably do something about that then."

Tsunade thought about it before shaking her head. If this lackadaisical nature of Konoha worked, why bother changing it? Like the old saying went, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'...although someone like Danzo would have a problem with that. Now that she thought about it, her grand-uncle, the Nidaime Hokage would also have a problem with that.

Tsunade sighed as she relaxed in her chair, "I don't know whether to root for the mission success or that everyone of those brats come back home alive."

Tsunade didn't see the nod that came from Hiruzen, "Personally, I would go for the latter…professionally?" That was best left not to be answered. He knew when to be sentimental and when to be professional and serious. Someone like Sasuke couldn't be allowed to leave for Orochimaru. If he gained Sasuke's body, he would become more dangerous than he already was.

That was a sombre and saddening thought. To think he would justify the ending of the lives of youngsters like Naruto, Neji, Shikamaru all to stop Sasuke from leaving for one of Konoha's most infamous traitor's, 'The lesser of two evils huh...'

XxX

Chakra that had a will of its own? Impossible.

It was simply impossible.

But then again, he had being made subject to seeing all sorts of impossible things. He had seen a grievous wound heal in a matter of seconds and now he was seeing chakra so dense that it could physically harm him and also seemingly had a will of it own. And it was all thanks to Naruto.

Naruto…

Naruto…

Dammit, why did it have to be him? Was this the special power that Itachi was chasing Naruto for? The reason his brother had seemingly discarded him to the side for? If it was, well everything certainly made sense.

He couldn't anticipate Naruto's attacks now. He could see where he would move, but that meant absolutely nothing to the red chakra shroud surrounding his body. If he dodged Naruto's physical attack, the chakra itself would just attack him, 'Close combat is dangerous...' And with that, Sasuke sped through hand seals for his clan's signature jutsu, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

He pumped as much chakra into the jutsu as he could and the result was a large ball of fire that roared as it travelled towards Naruto. He was caught off-guard as the jutsu was rendered useless as Naruto sped right through it and swung his arm towards him, 'Calm down, he's too far-.' He was eating his words when a chakra arm shot out and hit him, plowing him straight into the cliff wall.

He coughed out blood but wasn't given a moment of reprieve as he found something grabbing hold of him. He looked down and saw that familiar chakra arm that he had just been introduced to claspings its claw-like hand around him, 'Oh shit...' Oh shit indeed as he was reeled in like a fish on a line. With the end of that line being a fist courtesy of Naruto that sent him flying once more to crash into the feet of one of the statues.

Naruto looked at the dust cloud that he had just formed and looked down at himself as he looked at his form. He narrowed his eyes as he didn't need any sort of thinking prowess to figure out where this sudden power surge came from, ' The Kyuubi...' He thought.

He had to end this quickly. He was starting to lose feeling in one of his arms and he was just barely being able to control himself into not turning Sasuke into some kind of smeared red and white paste with all the violent impulses that were flooding his head.

"**Kuku…**" The blonde's attention was turned towards the dust cloud he had sent Sasuke flying into, "**You were **_**special**_** Naruto, but I'm **_**more**_** special."** Sasuke's voice rang-out. Although it sounded somewhat warped from what Naruto could tell.

Naruto's eyes narrowed slightly as the dust cloud cleared, "What the hell are you talking about you idiot?" He wasn't making any sense. Naruto knew he was pretty damn special, he didn't need anybody else telling him that he was.

The dust cleared to reveal Sasuke. Except that his appearance had altered extremely somewhat. He had dark grey skin and a noticeable four pointed black star on the bridge of his nose, his sclerae were black, his lips blue and his hair had grown longer to become waist-length and was now grey-like in colour with claw-like nails.

Naruto just looked at Sasuke with an astounded expression, "Wow…" He breathed out, "And you weren't ugly enough before?"

"**Kuku…**" Sasuke laughed in an eerily dark manner, "**Joke all you want. Let's see how many jokes you will be able to tell when you're dead."**

"I'm not dying." Naruto said with a confident expression, "And you're not dying. I'm dragging you back to Konoha so you can try and explain what the hell you're doing!" He yelled at his former teammate.

Naruto launched himself at Sasuke who merely stood there with a claw digging into the ground. He brought up his claw which hit Sasuke and dragged across the Valley of the End, using the abrasive rocky ground to deal as much damage as possible.

He was surprised when he found himself suddenly swatted away by something. Naruto managed to correct himself in the air to land on on the feet of the Shodaime statue and looked on in surprise as Sasuke seemingly flexed two hand-like wings on his back.

"...Sasuke, look at yourself." Naruto said lowly as he took in his friends rather grotesque appearance, "What kind of monsters are you turning yourself into? Is this what you're willing to pay for your power!?"

Sasuke chuckled quietly to himself, before it turned into a loud booming one, "**If it's for power that would allow me to carry out my ambition, then I'm more than willing to sell my soul to the devil."** He winced to himself as he felt a surge of pain in his body, 'I can't keep up this form for too long. I have to finish this quickly.'

Naruto noticed the wince of pain, but he wasn't doing any better. He had stopped feeling his left hand and was now certain that their little fight had come to an end right here and right now.

"**Do you know,"** Sasuke's voice rang out, getting Naruto's attention, "**This place is called the Valley of the End. Long ago, two ninjas of immense power fought here. I think its a rather suiting place for this...'rivalry' of ours to end. We'll finally see who's the stronger."** Sasuke said as he went through hand seals for the Chidori once more.

'Valley of the End...I definitely should know this place.' Naruto thought as he held out his hand as a Rasengan formed, 'But that's for later. I have to deal with this right now.' He finished as his dark-purple coloured Rasengan whirled in his right hand.

Both young ninjas looked at each other, each with their own respective jutsus at the ready before jumping towards each other at some unknown signal.

XxX

Kakashi's head snapped up as he looked forward, 'This chakra...'"Pakkun!"

"I know." Kakashi's canine companion said as he travelled beside the silver-haired jounin, "We should hurry. There's storm clouds forming. The rain could wash away any type of scent."

Kakashi wordlessly nodded as he increased his speed once more as he leapt of another tree branch.

XxX

Naruto and Sasuke's respective jutsus clashed against each other, each of the boys struggling for supremacy. The battle was a deadlock before Naruto smirked.

Sasuke small the smirk and was confused...confused until from the waterfall outburst a clone that had hid itself since the begin of the battle to land its own Rasengan on the Uchiha who didn't have time to do anything to dodge the attack.

Sasuke rocketed into the bank of the river. Naruto had trouble landing as he felt one of his legs go-out and also crashed into the ground. But unlike Sasuke, he had enough power to get back up.

He didn't know why, but he still had the Kyuubi shroud activated as he slowly made his way towards Sasuke. He noted that whatever grotesque form he had, had now disappeared and he was back to his original form.

"Oh don't look at me like that." The blonde said dismissively as he saw the glare that Sasuke was casting him, "I did say I was going to kick your ass didn't I?" He was rather sure he had said something like that at the beginning of their little fight. He had been out to kick ass, and he had kicked as far as Naruto was concerned.

"..."

"What? I didn't hear you. Can you say that again?"

"...How dare you?" Sasuke seethed out quietly and slowly. It wasn't supposed to be like this. As he said, he was more special than Naruto, and he had been done in by a stupid hidden clone. It couldn't end like this. Going back to Konoha spelled the end of his ambition. That couldn't happen. Someone had to avenge his clan and family. And he was the only one capable of that!

Naruto looked at him, ignoring the rather awkward angle Sasuke's left arm was in, "I'm doing my job you ass." The blonde said calmly as he thought about how to get Sasuke back to Konoha. He couldn't feel his left arm and his legs were going too, 'How the hell do I switch of this stupid thing?' He thought in reference to the shroud, "And I can't let you go to someone like Orochimaru."

"And who are you to decide that!?"

"...A friend...I guess." Naruto said with a small smile on his lips.

Sasuke looked at him incredulously before laughing, "You? A friend? Don't kid yourself. I tried to kill you several times over! What sort of friend does that?" This hadn't been some friendly spar between friends and comrades. This had been a full-on battle to the death between them. Although Sasuke had been more than willing to kill Naruto than Naruto was willing to kill Sasuke.

"A very bad friend." Naruto remarked dryly in an offhanded manner, "Now stop whining whilst I drag you back to-." He stopped talking when a leg suddenly appeared in his field of vision before it hit his head. The force of the kick sent him flying to the other side of the river, crashing into a boulder.

Naruto blinked as he looked up at the sky, his nose was definitely broken, '...What the hell just happened?' The blonde asked himself as he struggled to get to his feet. The shroud was now definitely gone as he used his one good arm to get up.

On the other side of the river, Sasuke found himself looking up at a woman with light blue hair done up in a ponytail, wearing red lipstick and dark eyes, "Who the hell are you?" He questioned the woman.

The woman sneered down at Sasuke as she looked down on him with a look of distaste and pleasure, "You're the person Orochimaru-sama has chosen for his next vessel?" She asked as she continued to look down at him, "You're laughably weak. Its so pathetic that you were beaten by trash like him."

Sasuke glared at the woman from his spot on the ground, "Watch your mouth…!"

The woman placed her foot on his chest and pressed down on him, bringing Sasuke to choke, "Trash don't have the right to make such requests of me."

"Hey!" The woman turned her head towards Naruto on the other side of the river, "Get your foot of that bastard!" He was the only one who could do that. Not that he would of course. Unless he was proclaiming his brilliance after kicking his ass. Just like what he had done.

She just looked at Naruto with a placid expression, "You're still alive?" She had been sure she had hit him hard and with enough force to snap his neck, oh well, that will be rectified soon enough, "I must be getting rusty." Running a base and doing paperwork tended to do that to you.

Naruto ignored the rather callous way she had dismissed him to look at the woman, "Who the hell are you anyway?"

"I might as well tell you since you're going to die anyway…" She said as she turned to fully face him as she went through a decent amount of hand seals at a pace Naruto couldn't even follow, "It's Guren. See ya, Shoton: Shuriken Ranbu (Crystal Release: Shuriken WIld Dance)!"

Naruto's eyes widened in horror as he saw a barrage of what looked like to be purple, crystal like shurikens speed towards him. With his legs the way they were, there was no way he was going to dodge them. The best he could do was protect any vital points.

He grit his teeth as he brought up his arms in a cross-guard, taking more effort into lifting the left arm than the right arm. The next moments, he found himself being pierced by what seemed to be an endless amount of projectiles. Eventually, the barrage wore off and his arms dropped limply to his side.

He cast Guren a bloody grin, "Ha, is that all you got?" Even as blood dripped down to the ground from all the wounds and cuts he was sporting thanks to that woman and her strange jutsu, he couldn't help himself by being a smart-ass.

"I _really_ am rusty." Guren muttered to herself in a derisive manner before shrugging uncaringly, "Oh well, let's see if you can survive this then, Kessho: Kyodai Rokkaku Shuriken (Crystal: Giant Hexagonal Shuriken)!".

A giant crystal shuriken that looked like a snowflake formed in Guren's hand before she flung it at Naruto. The shuriken moved through the air at blistering speed and Naruto was definitely sure he wasn't going to survive this one. He closed his eyes and just waited.

"Doton: Doryuheki (Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall)!"

Naruto opened an eye to see a massive wall of earth in front of him that had blocked the shuriken. Standing atop the wall was none other than, "Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi looked down at Naruto with his patented eye-smile, "Yo Naruto. How's it hanging?"

Naruto shrugged, "Could be worse." Worse as in, he could be dead right now if it wasn't for the man standing in front of him right now. If he could, he would hug the hell out of him.

"Good to know." Kakashi said as he looked back in front of him to Guren, "You wouldn't be a dame and just leave, could you?" He asked, eye-smile on his face as thunder boomed in the distance as rain fell on the area.

Guren smirked at him, "Sure." She said and made to move to pick-up Sasuke, but stopped when a kunai embedded itself between her and her target.

"_Without_ the boy." Kakashi clarified, voice still as pleasant as it could be.

"That would be a problem." Guren remarked offhandedly, not seemingly deterred by the fact that she was currently facing off against the famed Kakashi of the Sharingan, "I've got my orders and all." She said with a hand on her hip, "Orders are orders." Especially if the one giving them was the man known as Orochimaru.

Kakashi readied himself, "I don't really want to fight…" His voice having lost whatever pleasant demeanour he had before.

"Too bad." Guren said as she also readied herself for a fight before realising something and frowning, "But as much as I would love to have a fight with someone like you. As I said before, I have orders and they sort of have a time-limit. Bye now." She said as she quickly darted towards Sasuke.

Kakashi saw what she was going to do and immediately sped towards them, crossing the river at breakneck speeds. He threw a kunai at the girl to at least give her something to think about.

Instead, Guren was skilled enough to deflect the kunai, grab Sasuke and vanish in a shunshin. Kakashi came to a skidding halt as he looked at the space the two ninjas had vacated, "Damn...I failed again." His attention was then taken to the other river side bank as his earth wall fell to the ground, the chakra sustaining it being cut off, "Well...not entirely I guess." He mused as he made his way towards the prone form of Naruto.

"They got away?" Naruto asked as Kakashi knelt beside him, giving him field-aid for his wounds.

Kakashi nodded, "Yeah."

"...That sucks."

"Yep, it definitely sucks."

* * *

**AN: Gonna try something new for myself. Since in the future, you're going to be seeing lots of peripheral characters from the manga, and the changes I've given to Naruto, I'm gonna do some stats and probably do some other stuff like jutsu lists. I should probably do that shouldn't I? With the whole diverging from canon and everything.**

**Well here goes.**

Character Stats

Hatake Kakashi

Ninjutsu: 5

Taijutsu: 4.5

Genjutsu: 4

Intelligence: 5

Strength: 3.5

Speed: 4.5

Stamina: 3

Hand Seals: 5

Total: 34.5

Uzumaki Naruto

Ninjutsu: 3.5

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 1

Intelligence: 2

Strength: 3

Speed: 3.5

Stamina: 4

Hand Seals: 1.5

Total: 21

Nuke-nin

Uchiha Sasuke

Ninjutsu: 3.5

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 1.5

Intelligence: 2.5

Strength: 3

Speed: 3.5

Stamina: 3

Hand Seals: 3

Total: 22.5

Otogakure Shinobi

Guren

Ninjutsu: 5

Taijutsu: 4.5

Genjutsu: 3.5

Intelligence: 3.5

Strength: 3

Speed: 4

Stamina: 3.5

Hand Seals: 4

Total: 31

* * *

**AN cont'd: Well, chapter six here. And for many of you calling that the retrieval mission should have been a success...well, I can only say my story and I have it going in a certain direction. I also apologise for the lack of the feels this part of the Sasuke Retrieval Arc showed in the manga. Feels aren't really my speciality. I'm more of the detached, pragmatic sorta guy. Not one for feels. And if I had done that, I'd have borrowed of canon a lot. And due to the previous interaction between Naruto and Sasuke, I doubt that would have worked. So all in all I'm not one for feels, but I'm gonna work on that.**

**And if you're worried about a sudden time-skip next chapter, relax. I've got this checked out. Gotta have some development and all that don't we?**

**I also have another Naruto idea in the head. A really whacked out AU version of cannon. It's nothing more than a really, wobbly, abstract idea, and I sorta need your help on it. I don't have anything concrete on the ideas paper, but I'm thinking of a 'What if' story of a Naruto inheriting his parents talent in the art of stabbing people in the shadows with either Minato or Kushina being alive. Only one or the other. Thoughts?**

**On another note...canon, wow. Just wow. Kishi really did lose the plot didn't he? **

**And that is all.**

**Raiden out. **

**See ya.**


	7. Chapter 7

**DarkPirateKing 69: It's definitely not the Hiraishin, but the Shunshin could be used to disguise movement to escape. That's why no-one ever seems to chase Itachi or Kisame whenever they use it.**

**Thor94: I do have something planned, but you shall have to wait and see. It won't appear till way later in the story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto! Rather obvious really.**

* * *

Chapter 7 - Life Rolls On

(Konoha Hospital)

There was something about hospitals that Naruto never liked. Maybe it was the dull, infuriating colour white, the smell of antiseptic that irritated his sensitive nostrils, the general air of death in the place, or the fact that for someone like him who healed any sort of wounds in a matter of hours, lying there in bed for hours until he got the a-okay from a doctor to be released just irritated him.

He was fine. There was absolutely nothing wrong with him. Sure he had come in with some scratches here and there but he was still breathing wasn't he? And those scratches had since long gone. Why he was still being kept here was a mystery to him.

"Man this blows." Naruto cursed underneath his breath as his bandaged frame sat on the hospital room, "I'm fine already. Why are they still keeping me here?"

The door to his room slid open, "Because the doctors think you need to stay here." Naruto turned his head to face the door to see an old friend of his, "Yo Naruto, finally awake?"

Naruto's eyes brightened, "Shikamaru!" He greeted with a grin on his face, "Nice to see you lazy mug."

Shikamaru sighed as he leaned in the doorway, "Is that how you greet a friend?"

"You're lazy though." Naruto more or less deadpanned, "And would you just come into the room already? Don't just stand trying to be cool." Shikamaru just leveled a look at Naruto before deciding that it was far too much effort into the action before making his way in, closing the door behind him. Naruto grinned, "That's what I thought. You said so yourself, you're the more lame-ass type."

Shikamaru strolled into the room and took a seat on the foot of the bed, "So how you feeling?" He asked, rather concerned at his friends well being as he saw the numerous amount of bandages adorning him.

Naruto uneasily stretched himself, "I could be better." He looked around suspiciously, "Would be even better if I wasn't being forced to stay here."

Shikamaru chuckled quietly to himself before stopping, "So Sasuke actually fought you?"

"Yep." Naruto said simply enough with a simple nod of the head, "I don't think he was all there though…" He added as an afterthought, "But we definitely fought."

"That must have been…" Shikamaru tried to find a word, "Brutal." He finally said, once more, his eyes being attracted by the numerous bandages on his persons.

Naruto shook his head in dry amusement, "You have no idea," The blonde said as he raised a hand to touch the area around his left lung, "I thought I was going to die several times." They had been going at each other to kill from the get-go. Actually, Sasuke had, but eventually, the stakes had been raised up far too much for him to be pulling punches to try and not harm his former teammate.

Shikamaru didn't miss the hand movement, "From what I'm seeing, I can't really say I'm surprised."

"But I did win though." Shikamaru looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "Our fight. I was so close to dragging him back to Konoha before this other Oto chick came out of nowhere and blindsided me." He didn't think he would win against her anyway if he had been at optimal conditioning. She seemed really tough. Probably Kakashi-level tough.

Shikamaru sighed, "That sucks."

"Tell me about it."

A silence filtered through the room as both chunin merely stewed over their own thoughts. Eventually Shikamaru got up from his seat, "Even though my first official mission as a team leader ended in failure-."

Naruto snapped his head to look at Shikamaru, "Hey!" He cut in loudly, "Don't blame yourself. You were a rookie chunin in charge of a team of genin against definitely chunin or jonin level opponents."

"I know that. I wasn't done speaking." Shikamaru said in a rather irritable manner, before letting out a calming sigh. He stuffed his hands into his pockets, "Even though it ended in failure, I'm just glad that no-one in my team died." Apart from Naruto, who technically didn't count being his 'original' squad, Chouji and Kiba were the only ones that required intensive hospital treatment, but from what he had heard, they were going to recover without much difficulty.

Naruto grimaced at the thought of any of his friends dying, "Yeah, I can see what you mean."

"Anyway," Shikamaru continued as he headed for the door, "As troublesome as it is, I'm probably going to have to ask my dad to increase my training." Because something like what had happened today was not going to happen again, if he had anything to say about it.

Naruto grinned slyly at Shikamaru, "I thought you were aiming for plain average?"

Shikamaru chuckled, "Oh I am. Just because I said I was going to start training some more didn't mean I was aiming for some sort of higher station." The chunin said as he headed for the door, "Well see ya Naruto. Get well soon." He finished as he exited the room.

"See ya Shikamaru." Naruto said in farewell, "Don't overwork yourself."

XxX

It had been less than a couple of hours since Shikamaru visited him, and Naruto was getting restless once more. Oh how he hated hospitals. Thanks to Lee, apparently, the orderlies, nurses and doctors had been put to high alert for people like him.

People like him? What did they even mean by that? He wasn't a training fanatic like Lee. Sure, he enjoyed training himself into the ground every now and then, but he could also find the time to enjoy himself and relax.

Great, now he had to deal with being put into a generalisation, "I bet Kiba and Choji are being allowed to walk around freely."

"Not really kid."

"Gah!" Naruto yelped out in surprise as he turned his head towards the window, "Ero-sennin!"

The white-haired sannin raised a hand in greeting whilst grinning easily at Naruto, "Yo Naruto." He greeted before taking a seat on the window sill, "You look like shit. I expect much more from my apprentice."

Naruto crossed his arms and pouted, "I don't look like shit." It was the bandages. He didn't need the bandages. He was perfectly fine, the bandages made it look like he had been on the wrong end of an ass-kicking. Which he definitely hadn't been at.

"Yeah you do." Jiraiya deadpanned with an amused smirk on his face, "Unless you're somehow the bastard son of the mummy."

Naruto squinted his eyes and tilted his head in confusion, "Son of the mummy?" He repeated Jiraiya's words to him, "What the hell are you talking about ero-sennin?"

"Oh nevermind." Jiraiya said with a wave of the hand, clearly Naruto didn't get the reference. No-one appreciated the classics anymore, "So how you feeling?"

"I'm fine." Naruto said with a sigh, "I'm just peeved off that Guren whatever just coming out of nowhere and stopping me from retrieving Sasuke." And also peppering him with those wierd shuriken of hers. Those things hurt like hell and if he hadn't protected himself adequately, he would have been very dead.

Jiraiya took in that information as he nodded, "Seems like Orochimaru has some competent henchmen under him." He didn't know whether to be surprised or not. Orochimaru had always been rather charismatic in his own...freaky and strange way. So it wasn't far fetched of him to have attracted ninjas of high-quality to his side.

Naruto nodded his head vigorously, "Yeah, and they also have this weird thingy that gives them a power boost or something."

"Curse Mark." The oldest ninja in the room chimed in, "It's called a Curse Mark if that's what I think you're referring too." He then looked up in thought, "Good idea to bring in a prisoner by the way. We could learn some more information about Orochimaru's operations."

Naruto squinted his eyes some more before blinking in realisation, "Ah, you mean that girl with the really, really, really, bad mouth."

Jiraya chuckled, "Yeah, I definitely mean her." He had only seen the ninja for only a few minutes but she had cursed him out so many times in that short-amount of time that it wasn't even funny.

The door to Naruto's room opened and in stepped two people that Naruto was well versed with. And when they stepped in, Naruto couldn't help himself but blink, '...Why do I know so many powerful people?' He mused as Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage and Hiruzen, the now retired, again, Sandaime Hokage walked in, "Baa-chan! Jiji!"

Tsunade growled as he nursed a pulsing vein on her temple and muttered some misgivings about 'disrespectful brats.' Whilst Hiruzen could only chuckle in amusement at seeing the reaction from his female student, "Nice to see you so lively Naruto-kun." The aged man said as he took a seat beside the blonde bed.

Tsunade went to lean against a wall facing Naruto's bed, "Since you're simply asking for a beating by continuing this 'baa-chan' crap, I take it you're fine?" She more or less growled out with something of a feral smile on her face.

The blonde male merely looked at her, rather fearful of his well being for the first time. Now, how was he to answer this that didn't promise him a large amount of pain in the future, "...I could be better." He said slowly, "And you can't hit me or anything. I'm a hospital patient."

Tsunade snorted in apparent amusement as Jiraiya laughed from his seat, "Kid, the hime could beat you till the point you have a foot half-way through death's door and then bring you back like nothing even happened." He then blinked and scratched his chin in thought, "And with your little healing ability, I think she would be able to put more than half a foot through death's door."

Naruto was now absolutely horrified at that thought, and the wide grin Tsunade was giving him wasn't helping, "Listen to the pervert brat," Tsunade said, "I can do that."

"Ha ha…" Naruto laughed out weakly before looking at Hiruzen with begging eyes, "Please don't leave me alone with her."

Hiruzen merely smiled as he brought his pipe to his lips, "Then don't instigate her." The man simply advised.

"And you're instigating me sensei." Tsunade said blankly from her place in the room, "I wasn't aware you could smoke in a hospital."

The pipe never reached Hiruzen's lips before he simply began to lower it back to his pockets, "I guess I can't…" And he was in really in need of a smoke. He had been rather worried about the boy that saw him like a grandfather ever since he went off.

Naruto watched with rapt attention at the scene that had played right in front of him, 'Jiji just got owned.' Something like that should have told him that it was probably not smart of him to continue calling the powerful kunoichi baa-chan, just like how she had apparently wielded a big-ass tanto like nothing during her own retrieval, but then again, this was a matter of principle. If he started addressing her with respect, others would demand the very same thing. There was no way he was letting anything like that happen.

"Not that I don't mind," Naruto began, "But why are you all here?" Everyone apart from him were important people (But he was going to become important in the future, he definitely was going to be dattebayo!), clearly they had other things to do than spent time in the hospital room of a chunin? Granted, the village's jinchuuriki, who was still a chunin nonetheless.

Tsunade raised her hand lamely, "I heard you got your ass kicked. I just came to make fun of you." She finished with an easy grin on her face.

Naruto cast her a dry look, "So nice to know you care baa-chan."

"I will hurt you."

"Ahem." Hiruzen coughed in his hand to get the attention of the two bickering blondes, "Well, I came to see how you were doing Naruto-kun. And I believe Jiraiya-kun also had something to tell you." Something that was rather important in the grand scheme of things of the young blonde's life.

"Oh." Naruto let out before turning towards Jiraiya, "So what is it?"

Jiraiya thought of how to sugar-coat this as best as he could before shrugging in nonchalance, "Kid, you know those two cloaked guys in the red and black from way back?"

It took a while before Naruto managed to dredge up the memory of two people in the same coloured clothes that Jiraiya was referring too, "Sasuke's older brother and that blue, fish-looking guy right?" The Toad Sage nodded his head in confirmation, "Yeah, what about them?"

"Remember the group they belong too?"

"Aka-something?"

Jiraiya sweatdropped, "Yeah...them." You would think that for someone that had a secret organisation after them, he would be more attentive to such things, "Well, there's some good news on that front."

"Good news?" Naruto asked. He wondered what the good news was. He doubted he was lucky enough for them to just suddenly call it a day and disband, saving him the trouble of having to look over his back for them.

Jiraiya nodded, "Yeah, good news. Thanks to my sources, I've learned the Akatsuki will be taking a hiatus for the next three years. Why I have no idea, but at least this gives me time to train you to become a world beater." And a world beater he would be. He wouldn't have anything less for his apprentice. He was the epitome of being out-fucking-standing, his students had to strive to be also a similar level of outstanding.

...If they could of course. Reaching such a level was beyond the vast majority of men. Only the worthy could achieve such a level.

"Three years…" He could definitely see himself in three years time kicking some Kage-level nuke-nin ass...yeah, that sounded so much more believable in his head. It was with that thought, something clicked with Naruto, "Say ero-sennin…"

"Hmm?"

"What's with your spy network?"

Jiraiya looked at Naruto with a blank stare, "What do you mean kid?"

"I mean," Naruto began, "Your spy network can find information as oblivious such as that Akatsuki will be going on hiatus for three years but for some strange reason, it misses out an invasion by two villages happening? What's up with that?"

At that moment, Tsunade and Hiruzen blinked as they saw what Naruto was getting too, "The brat has a point there Jiraiya." The only Senju in the room remarked in amusement, "World's greatest spy network my ass." She finished with an amused smirk on her lips as Hiruzen chuckled from the side.

Jiraiya gaped for a few moments as quiet laughter at his own expense went through the room before pulling himself together, "Shut up kid." He grumbled, "If you don't apologize right now, then I won't train you." Make a fool of him does he? He won't be having that.

Tsunade rolled her eyes, "No you won't. You're too much of a softie to leave the kid high and dry."

Jiraiya was about to argue against that before Hiruzen spoke up in his usual tone of calmness, "She's right. And I'm sure even if you retracted the offer to teach him, I'll be more than willing to train Naruto-kun, if he doesn't take the Guardian offer of course."

Naruto grinned at Hiruzen, "You would train me? You're awesome jiji!" He had no doubt that if he was trained by Hiruzen, he would be super strong. The man had trained Jiraiya and Tsunade and they were considered to be some of the best ninja ever. And with that thought gone, another thought hit him, "Wait a second, what did you mean by Guardian offer?"

"You don't know?" Hiruzen asked with a confused tone.

Naruto shook his head, "Don't know what? I don't know jack about whatever this Guardian thing is."

Hiruzen sighed and Tsunade refrained herself from punting the man in question as he merely played dumb, "I don't know how, but you caught quite a few eyes during the Chunin Exams. One of those eyes being the Daimyo's." She sighed as she said that title, knowing him well after having to deal with him quite the few times, "For whatever kami forsaken reason, he want's you to be part of his newly re-established Twelve Guardian Ninja."

Naruto looked absolutely lost on the subject, "What the hell is this Guardian Ninja or whatever it's called." And why would he accept a job that will probably including babysitting a bunch of snot-faced nobles and work for some sort of group that he had never ever heard off?

"I would call you ignorant just out of principle," Tsunade mused, gaining a look from Naruto, "But I can't since the group isn't really mentioned ever since there somewhat fall from grace."

"Fall from grace?" Naruto queried, rather interested now for some strange reason. A reason he couldn't really understand or fathom.

Hiruzen waved the matter away dismissively, "It's nothing of your concern Naruto-kun. All you have to know that is that the Guardian's is the group of ninja that made my son the man he is today."

Naruto slowly turned to face Hiruzen with squinted eyes, "...Son?"

The two sannin's in the room face faulted as Hiruzen merely sweat dropped, "...Yes...my son Asuma. The sensei of Team 10."

Naruto blinked before the visage of the bearded, smoking sensei of Shikamaru's team came into mind, "Oh him! He's your son?" Wow, he really missed the ball on that one. How could he not have noticed? He just figured they shared the same name since they belonged to the same clan.

"Yes…" Sometimes, Naruto could be just really, really dumb.

After that little episode, Naruto clammed up and crossed his arms over his chest as he thought about it. He would either having training with Jiraiya for three years if he decided to go with him, if he decided to stay in Konoha, he would have training with his beloved jiji, or he could go to these Guardian guys. He had worked with Asuma and knew he was strong, so if he went there, he would most likely end up as strong too.

Before he could come to a decision, Jiraiya spoke up that pretty much sealed away the decision, "Oh yeah, if you go with the Guardians, you'll be training with some of the best ninja in the world and I'll be there too of course…" He said before deciding to go in for the kicker, "All missions for Guardians are B to S-rank every single time."

Naruto quickly snapped his fingers and pointed at Jiraiya, "Guardians it is."

The other males in the room laughed whilst Tsunade rolled her eyes, "Well since you made your decision, you have two months before you have to report at the capital." She said as she headed for the door, "Don't try to embarrass yourself when you get there." She also failed to mention that Naruto hadn't been the only one to get an invitation. She didn't want him to pressure the other ninja into going.

"Alright! But before you go baa-chan…"

"I'm not discharging you from the hospital."

"Aw…"

XxX

(Ta no Kuni - Somewhere)

"I have to say Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru's slippery voice chimed out, "I'm rather disappointed. To think you would be brought to such a state by little Naruto-kun." He finished as he looked at the boy lying on the table being given medical relief by his right-hand man Kabuto.

Sasuke turned his eyes and glared at the snake sannin, "Don't say his name…!" He growled out as he grit his teeth. His Sharingan activated by pure reflex at the hate he was currently feeling for Naruto at this moment.

"Now, now," Kabuto spoke, his tone patronizing and condescending, "Don't move too much Sasuke-kun. You risk agitating your injuries." It was rather amusing for the bespectacled man to look down at the currently glaring Uchiha, "This would be far easier if Karin was here." And more amusing due to the sheer fact that Sasuke would have to suffer some more from his injuries until Karin got here and healed him.

"Shut up Kabuto." Sasuke grit out as he clenched a fist, "The next time I see him, he won't even last a second against me."

Orochimaru's laughter echoed from the other side of the room, "We shall see Sasuke-kun, we shall see. I have high hopes of you after all." His brother had seen fit to leave the younger brother alive. It simply couldn't be because of a sadistic personality. Itachi was anything but sadistic. He saw something in Sasuke, just like how he himself saw a great potential in the Uchiha. A potential that would allow him to gain a powerful body.

Standing beside Orochimaru was the man's second in command who was currently glowering at Sasuke for the sheer impudence he was showing to the greatness that was Orochimaru. If her lord and master hadn't marked him as his next host and thus above harm, Sasuke would be nothing more than thousands of shattered pieces of crystal. Crystal that she would personally grind into fine dust.

"Now my dear," The snake sannin with a smile on his face that could kill anything innocent, "Take that look of your exquisite face. You may not like him, but remember, he will soon house my presence." Three years from now, but what would it matter? The Sharingan was just right in front of his eyes.

Guren stayed quiet, "...Sorry Orochimaru-sama. I will return to my base if you don't need me anymore."

Orochimaru thought about it for a second before stopping her, "No, stay here. I will have use for you and Kabuto as I raise Sasuke-kun to the best of his abilities in preparation for when I take his body." If Kabuto was his right-hand, Guren was his left-hand. They were both capable and powerful fighters and would give anyone a difficult fight. Sasuke would have excellent sparring partners who would continue to test him.

Guren bowed, "As you wish Orochimaru-sama."

XxX

(Konoha - Konoha Hospital)

Three years.

Three years to get awesome or wimp out and die when the bad guys come rolling. Yeah...he could do it. He was Uzumaki 'fucking' Naruto. The man who will be king or Hokage in this case, but it didn't matter, it was the same difference anyway.

But for that too happen, he had to get out of the hospital first. This place was getting to him. He didn't want to be here. He was all healed dammit. All healed and fine.

He had already tried sneaking out, but his windows were locked down and secure for some strange reason, like they had expected something like this from him. He really didn't understand why they would expect such a thing from him anyway, this was his first extended stay in a hospital and he had never tried to sneak away or anything.

"You look really bored."

Naruto was roused from his thoughts by the new voice and turned his head to see a familiar face, "Kin?" He let out in surprise, "What are you doing here?"

The teenage girl shrugged as she took a seat at the lone chair in the room, "What? I can't visit you, but you can? How does that work Goldilocks?" She asked.

Kin was dressed in what seemingly looked like civilian clothing consisting of a grey, sleeveless shirt, cream coloured pants and sandals. Her hair was still ridiculously long, how she was able to manage it was beyond him.

Naruto gave her a looks when he heard the nickname she had christened him with, "Don't call me that." Goldilocks? That wasn't even any sort of intimidating nickname in the slightest. Maelstrom sounded way better.

A sly smile came across her lips, "It was either that or Fishcake." She relaxed in her chair, "I figured I'd go for the most flattering one."

"Maelstrom." Naruto growled, causing Kin to raise an eyebrow in interest, "My name means 'maelstrom'. Not 'fishcake', 'maelstrom' now say it with me, 'maelstrom'..." He finished off slowly, trying to prompt Kin to say it with him.

All she did was just let out an amused laugh, "Yeah, not happening Goldilocks. I think I prefer fishcake instead of maelstrom anyway. Suits you so much more."

Naruto just gave her a dry look of horror, "I will hurt you."

"Don't know about that," Kin mused as she looked Naruto over, "You look like you belong in a sarcophagus of some sort with all the bandages. I'm pretty sure I can take you on. But I won't, I'm on probation."

That caught Naruto's interest, "Probation?" That meant she was under supervision for something.

"Yep!" Kin replied rather cheerily, "I don't know how you did it, but apparently, you do know some top people. All I have to do is behave for however long and I'll be allowed to stay in the village. Maybe become a ninja in the future if I feel like it."

"Well are you?"

A thoughtful expression came across the long-haired kunoichi as she thought about it before sighing, "I probably will. I don't really have any other skills apart from being a kunoichi. So yeah, I'll probably join up if I'm allowed." She finished off rather nervously.

"What's with the nervousness for?" Why would she be nervous? It wasn't like she was going to be interrogated or anything like that. She was being pretty much allowed to do whatever she wanted inside the boundary of the village.

Kin rubbed the back of her neck nervously, "Former Oto kunoichi here. A lot of people might not trust or like me. Simply because of that." She would be something of a pariah with the connection that she had been previously aligned with a village that was headed by a notorious nuke-nin with crimes against humanity and had attacked their village.

Word had seemingly spread throughout the village of her being a former ninja to that village. She could see the indifference or outright dislike. If it wasn't for the fact that she was under the protection of the Hokage, she was sure someone would have tried something to harm her already for what Oto or Orochimaru did.

"Then let them."

"Huh?"

Naruto looked at her, "Let them distrust or dislike you as much as they want."

Kin crossed her legs and her arms over her chest and gave Naruto a slightly bemused but confused look, "Now why would I honestly do that?" Living a life filled with distrust or dislike didn't seem like that much of a life to her.

"Because the attitude they are giving you would be fuel for you to burn." That got her attention, so he continued, "Fuel for you to burn to prove them wrong that you're not someone to blame or distrust for whatever Orochimaru did. Prove to them that you definitely want to be part of the village. You already have a friend in me."

Kin looked at him, seemingly in thought, "...That seems like a lot of effort on my part."

Naruto sweat dropped before picking himself up, "But the end result will be worth it."

Kin gave him a disbelieving shrug, "If you say so Goldilocks."

"I wish you would stop calling me that."

"No chance unfortunately."

"Dammit…you're ruining my rep."

"You don't have one."

"...I know."

XxX

(Three Days Later)

Jiraiya had disappeared off to do whatever Jiraiya does whenever he goes away from the village. The forty-something year old man had told him he would be back before he was needed to report in the capital and thus told the blonde to keep doing whatever he did until then.

He didn't receive any fuss from Naruto on that part as he would gleefully throw himself back into his training. He was still lagging on his wind manipulation training and that was starting to get to him. He would have to find Kakashi and ask him if he knew any sort of tips on the art.

After being discharged from the hospital, which was only less than two hours ago, Naruto did the first thing that came to mind, raid Ichiraku Ramen for all its worth. And that's what he was currently doing in his beloved food stand.

Ayame looked on the other side of the counter with an amused expression on her face, "Slow down Naruto-kun, you're going to end up back in hospital again at this rate." She had been watching him stuff bowl after bowl of food the moment he had announced himself to the father-daughter duo.

"No way," Naruto said as he continued to reel in some ramen with the help of his chopsticks, "I have to get whatever…" He somehow managed to let out a shudder and continue to eat as he ate his food, "That _food_ they were giving me in the hospital out of my system." He said with apparent distaste for hospital food.

"And your plan involves puking it all out?" The cute ramen waitress queried with a raised brow, "Cause I don't think that's really smart." She then hummed in thought, "But you've never been that smart, so it's all okay."

Naruto stopped eating to level a dry glare at the ramen waitress, "Ayame-neechan…" He whined with a slight pout on his face.

Ayame just let out a laugh before bringing out her hand to ruffle Naruto's hair, "I was just joking Naruto." She said, obviously getting her amusement from the look on the blonde's face, "Well sort of." She finished off.

Naruto just stopped and continued giving her a dry glare of sorts. That only seemed to make Ayame ruffle his hair harder and laugh some more whilst she was at it. Oh how she loved messing with cute, little blonde jinchuurikis. She wouldn't trade it for the world.

Due to her positioning facing the entrance of the stand, she was first to notice a customer about to enter, "Welcome," She said as she perfectly timed it for the moment the customer entered the stand, "Oh Temari-san, the usual I take it?"

Naruto blinked as he slowly turned his head to look at the newest patron of the stand who took a seat beside him, "Yes please Ayame-san." The dirty blonde-haired kunoichi said as she made herself comfortable. After a while she glanced towards Naruto who had continued to just stare at her, "What?"

To answer the question, he lifted his chopstick to look at her, "What are you doing here?" Simple enough question really. He wasn't aware of the fact that Konoha had requested assistance from Suna for the retrieval mission.

Temari shrugged, "Your village requested assistance from my village for that Uchiha business. Oh thank you Ayame-san." She thanked as Ayame set a bowl of ramen in front of her.

Naruto slowly nodded as he started to understand, "Okay, but that was days ago." He pointed out as he went back to his own food, "What are you doing here then?"

"Oh part of the new treaty we have with you guys." She said as she ate her food like the dignified lady that she was, "We're helping you out with the mission surplus for the next foreseeable future. We have no idea when we're going back to Suna." All she knew that it was a short-term thing. She hoped by short-term, Baki meant a couple of months at the very least.

"Oh." Well that made sense of what she was doing here, but first…"Now when you say we…"

An amused smirk came across Temari's lips, "Yes, me and my brothers."

"Oh man…" So he hadn't been dreaming that weird desert of bones he had seen when Kakashi was carrying him back to Konoha? Fuck.

He still wasn't fully convinced that Gaara wouldn't try to screw with him the next chance he got. He had thought that now that the entire geography wasn't made out of sand only, he could stand a chance against him. But apparently, he could now make deserts if he so wished. That wasn't fair in the slightest.

Seemingly sensing what was going through his mind, Temari spoke, "Don't worry. He isn't going to try and kill you. I think he likes you." Naruto snapped his head to face her with wide eyes, "And not like that you idiot." She quickly added, "I think something like a friend." Which was surprising. Whenever Gaara spoke about him, Temari could sense some sort of fondness for the blonde whenever he said his name.

Naruto just continued to look at her before going back to his food and smiling lightly, "Friend huh?" He could have honestly cried tears of joys at that moment. It meant he wouldn't have to worry about his well-being in his presence, which was fucking awesome, and speaking of friends, "I need to tell him something."

Temari quirked a delicate eyebrow, "Tell him something?"

Naruto nodded with a serious look on his face, "Yeah, something really important." Something that included his future well-being.

Temari didn't know what this something was, but by the look that was on his face, she could guess it was of grave importance, "Well, he's mostly stays in our hotel room. I was just heading back there after this. You can come with."

Naruto nodded as he went back to his meal.

XxX

"Are they yours?"

"Just ignore them."

"They've been following us since the stand."

"Just ignore them, they'll get bored."

"When?"

"...Eventually."

"That's far too late for me." Temari stopped and turned around and cast a dry look at the 'rock' that had been following her and Naruto. This rock was a rather strange thing, it had two eyeholes and was shaped like a square...too much like a square, "Alright kids, I'm going to count to three and if you don't show and explain yourself, I'm going to use this," She said as she placed a hand on her tessen, "To see how hard that 'rock' is."

Naruto sighed as he stood next to Temari, "Come on out Konohamaru, Udon, Moegi." The blonde called out lazily to the box, "I don't think she's actually joking about the whole smashing thing." She didn't look to be joking and he had been on the other side of her temper. It was a painful experience.

The two older ninja stared at the box with blank expressions before it exploded outwards in a shower of smoke, "Wow, I knew you were awesome boss!" A bratty voice yelled out as the smoke cleared, "To think you noticed us that quick. You definitely deserve to be my boss." Two other chorus of affirmations rang out.

"It wasn't really that hard to notice it was you guys…" Who else had the time and childish mentality to follow him around Konoha in a very, very bad disguise? Sarutobi Konohamaru that was who, "So what are you doings anyway?"

Konohamaru stepped forward to look up at Naruto, "We were looking around for you to see if you wanted to play ninja."

Konohamaru was a short boy with short spiky brown hair and dark eyes with a small chip in his teeth. He wore a yellow shirt with the Konoha symbol, grey shorts and a long blue scarf.

Temari raised an eyebrow, "Ninja?" She repeated, "What sort of game is that?"

Konohamaru happily answered her, "It's a game where you pretend to be a ninja, doing ninja stuff of course!"

"That's sounds rather stupid." Temari deadpanned. Ninja playing ninja? What sort of game was that? Well, she could at least see some sort of benefits from such a game.

Konohamaru glared at her before pointing at her, "Boss who is she!?" He asked Naruto. Before the blonde even answered a look came across his face and smiled slyly at Naruto, "Is she your…?" He trailed off as he raised his pinky.

Naruto just facepalmed, did he not remember what happened the last time this happened? In fact...Naruto slowly glanced towards his female and companion and even though she wore a calm expression on her face, he could feel her ire, "Eh Konohamaru, how about we play ninja later? I'll come find you." He said, in a bid to save the young boy's life. As far as he was concerned, Temari was far scarier than Sakura. She lugged around that heavy fan didn't she? That had to mean something.

Konohamaru raised an eyebrow at the expression Naruto had on his face before looking at Temari who was far too calm for his liking, "Yeah...I think I'll see you later boss!" The young Sarutobi quickly said before turning on his heels and running away with his gang of friends.

Temari just stared off at the three youngsters back wondering if she should just unleash a wave of wind on them, "So who were they?"

Naruto let out a sigh at seeing disaster being averted, "Something like my fanclub I guess." He answered unsurely. He didn't know what to call Konohamaru and his gang, they were very much like a fan club of his.

"Fanclub huh…" Temari calmly said as she turned around and continued to walk towards their destination, "I suggest you have words with your fanclub in the future."

Naruto followed after her a little bit behind, "Will do ma'am."

"And Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"Stop staring at my ass."

Naruto was offended, "How could you say that? I'm not a pervert!"

"Then why are you suddenly walking behind me?"

"...I was tying my shoes?"

"You're wearing sandals."

"...Am I going to pay for this at a later date?" She nodded, "...Then I might as well continue staring." Hey, she was going to beat the crap out of him sooner or later, then why would should he stop what he was doing right now?

"You just did not say that…" Temari muttered as she looked back at Naruto with a stupefied expression, "Tell me you're not that dumb."

The blonde haired chunin did as what was asked of him, "I'm not that dumb."

"Debatable."

"Hey, you asked."

XxX

(Sand Siblings' Hotel Room)

Kankuro stood at one side of the living room with his sister staring at Naruto and Gaara with a dry expression on his face. Finally, not being able to take it anymore, he glanced at his sister, "What are they doing?"

Temari continued to look at her youngest brother and the blonde haired kid staring off against each other, "What makes you think I know?" She asked rhetorically, "This is about as strange as it is to me as it is you."

The moment Naruto and Gaara had met each other, they had sat down and had entered some would call a staring contest. Which is what essentially the two boys were doing, they were just staring at each other. They hadn't even blinked or even moved in the slightest.

If there was some sort of professional league for such a thing, she was sure her brother would considered a champion and Naruto the rather exceptional challenger. She had been rather surprised that the bundle of energy could just sit still for so long without moving or anything.

"Huh…" Kankuro mused as he continued to stare at the scene, "They're so weird." He muttered underneath his breath. His attention was then garnered by something he had observed on Naruto when he had entered the room, "Question, why does the blonde kid have a black eye and that big ass lump on his head?" He asked his fan wielding sister since she had been the one to come in with him.

Temari waved the question off, "Oh nothing much, he walked into a door." Kankuro sweatdropped as he looked at his sister in disbelief, "He looks just about dumb enough to do that."

The puppeteer let out a dry chuckle at his sister's answer, "If you're trying to make the kid like you, you're going the wrong way about it." He wasn't sure physical harm of any sort helped in trying to woo a member of the opposite sex.

Temari snapped her head to her younger brother and narrowed her eyes, "...Sorry," She began slowly in an ominous way, "Did you just say something stupid?"

Kankuro knew he was wading into dangerous waters, but damned if he cared, he had been meaning to call her out on this for a while, "What? I'm just saying, me and Gaara saw you fight yourself on whether to go see the kid whilst he was in hospital and you've been going to that ramen place hoping to see if you run into that kid."

Her hand was already clutching her tessen and she had something of an angry, calm look on her face, "Really now?" She said, "And in your great wisdom, what do you think that means?"

"Oh simple really," He really should be listening to the voice of self-preservation in his head that was telling him to shut-up, "You li-." He didn't finish his sentence as he was sent flying into a wall thanks to Temari.

The pig-tailed kunoichi let out a wistful sigh before feeling eyes on her. She turned her head to see Naruto and Gaara just staring at her. She laughed sheepishly, "Oh don't mind us, you guys keep doing...whatever you were doing…" She said as she dragged Kankuro's groaning body out of the room.

The jinchuuriki in question just watched as the older Sand siblings walked out of the room. Naruto shook his head in amusement, "You have such weird siblings." The blonde mused.

"Maybe." Gaara said lowly before turning to look at Naruto, "So what did you come here for Uzumaki?"

Oh yeah, he had come here to warn someone that apparently considered him a friend to a threat that threatened his wellbeing. Naruto crossed his arms in a rather serious manner before speaking, "Right, I came to tell you that there's a freaky group of ninjas out there," Naruto began, "Apparently composed of some of the strongest ninjas in the world after the things we hold inside of us."

"A group?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, they call themselves Akatsuki or something. I think you would be able to notice them by the fact they were an outfit of black cloaks with red clouds." Funny really, there group name could be translated as 'Red Dawn'. The clouds were rather fitting in that sense, "They're like really strong Gaara. Kage-level strong. These guys aren't any sort of pushovers."

Gaara simply nodded, "Thank you for the warning. I shall train myself more thoroughly in preparation for any future encounters with them."

Naruto grinned, "Awesome." The blonde said, "We've got three years anyway. Ero-sennin says they're going on hiatus for that long."

Gaara looked at him quizzically, "Ero-sennin?" What a strange name for someone to hold.

Naruto laughed, "Oh, I call him that but some people recognise him as Jiraiya of the Sannin."

"Why would you call a member of the Sannin by such a name?"

"He's a pervert." The chunin answered simply enough, "That's why."

"You're such a strange person Uzumaki."

Who gave a person that could annihilate them in a matter of seconds such a derisive nickname? Uzumaki Naruto apparently.

XxX

(Sometime Later - Naruto's Apartment)

Naruto let out a yawn as he stumbled towards his door dressed in nothing more than his jammies. Several knocks were knocked on his door as he made his way, "I'm coming, I'm coming." He tried to yell out but came out more of a yawn than anything else.

He eventually reached his door and swung it open. He had to blink to get his eyes adjusted to the sun and then blink some more to make sure he wasn't seeing anything, "Sakura?" He let out in recognition, not even noticing the fact that he had somehow missed out the '-chan' suffix at the end of her name.

"Naruto," Sakura let out, it was evident that she had been crying lately, the fact that her eyes were red, "Can I come in?"

Naruto blinked, if this was in the past, he would be chomping at the bit at having Sakura of all girls coming into his apartment. But hey, since he was trying or apparently over her, "Sure come in." He said as he stepped to the side to let her enter.

The girl nodded her head slowly and entered his apartment, "Did you just wake up." She said as she tried to strike up some sort of conversation.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded his head in confirmation as he closed the door behind him, "I sort of went overboard with my training yesterday." He finished off as he walked into the kitchen area, 'Like usual.' He mused dryly.

Sakura nodded as she took a seat, "Oh yeah," She smiled softly at Naruto, although her heart wasn't into it. She was clearly holding something heavy over her heart, "You got promoted to chunin didn't you? That's a lot of responsibility to have. Are you sure you're ready for it?"

Naruto laughed bashfully, "Well, I'm handling it fine at the moment. So yeah, I think I'm ready for it. Now I'm just one step closer to being Hokage dattebayo!" He suddenly stopped, "Dammit, I'm trying to get rid of that…" He shook his head before looking at Sakura, "Do you want something to drink?" He asked her.

Sakura shook her head, "No, I'm fine."

Naruto nodded his head before walking over towards her, "So what did you come over for Sakura?" He asked as he took a seat of his own.

Sakura looked up to Naruto's blue eyes before her tears started swelling in her eyes, "Naruto…" She began lowly, "You met Sasuke-kun didn't you?"

He instinctively moved his hand towards his lung and let out a small wince before quickly pulling his hand away, "Yeah, he wasn't really willing to talk though."

The tears were now lightly streaming down from her eyes and down her face, "Naruto, Sasuke-kun, I-."

Naruto cut her off with a hand, "Alright, why don't you just tell me what you what you want to say?" His emotions and feelings towards her might have been mixed at best. But he still couldn't help but be worried and feel saddened over her.

Sakura simply looked at him before nodding her head. From that point on she poured her heart out to him. She told him about how she had thought that Sasuke would try to leave the village and had waited for him on the main road, how she had confessed her feelings to him and how he had knocked her out.

Naruto just stared quiet and let the pink-haired kunoichi pour her heart out, '...She really likes Sasuke doesn't she?' He thought somewhat miserably to himself. Somewhere deep inside him, he had hoped that he had a chance to be able to get the girl he had been chasing since the academy. A somewhat bitter laugh rang out through his head as Sakura continued to talk, 'Ero-sennin had been right, I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell.'

Eventually, Sakura stopped talking. Her throat and mouth were drying from the sheer amount she had to speak for so long without stopping. She had been rather surprised by the fact that Naruto had managed to keep himself quiet for so long without saying anything.

A quiet silence permeated in the room before the chunin of the two spoke, "You really like Sasuke don't you Sakura?"

Sakura shook her head, "Not like." She corrected, "Love. I actually love him."

'Yeah...definitely not a snowball's chance in hell.' Naruto thought to himself. He was sure he had liked Sakura, he didn't know if he had loved her or not. He just knew he liked her, even if he did love her, how would he have known that he actually loved the girl? That emotion was rather absent from his life, so he wouldn't know.

"That's a big claim isn't it?" Was it though? Since he wouldn't know if he had loved Sakura, how could she know that she loved Sasuke? Minus the fact that she had a far more stable upbringing than himself. And weren't they a little too young for such feelings, "Things can change you know."

Sakura didn't think so as she shook her head vigorously in the negative, "Girls aren't flighty about such things Naruto." She grabbed the hem of her dress and scrunched it up, "I made a commitment long ago that I loved Sasuke and I would prove it to him." She looked down, "I-I really would have gone with him."

Naruto's jaw dropped before he suddenly started waving his hands about, "You can't say something like that Sakura-chan." From the little meeting he had with Orochimaru, he got the feeling that he was the type to kill someone who he thought wasn't worth his time. And anyway, he doubted the life of a nuke-nin was all fun and games, "So what happens now?"

Determination suddenly appeared in her eyes, "I'll simply get strong enough to save him. I'll get strong and bring Sasuke-kun back."

Naruto blinked. Well...that was certainly unexpected. But could he blame her for wanting to save him? He was sure he would be in a similar position if he could, hell, a part of him wanted Sasuke to come back and he wouldn't be much of a friend and a teammate if he let Sakura go out on her own.

Naruto leaned to the back of his seat, "Then I guess you can't count me in."

Sakura look rather surprised by that, shown by her rather eloquent reply, "Huh?"

Naruto grinned at her, "Like I said, you can count me in whenever you try and save Sasuke-teme. I want to kick his ass anyway for what he did."

The pink haired kunoichi blinked before smiling at Naruto, "Thank you Naruto." She got up from her seat and made for the door, "Just you wait, when we go get Sasuke-kun back, I'll definitely be really strong."

"I wouldn't expect nothing less!"

XxX

(Two Weeks Later - Training Ground 13)

Naruto stood in a training ground with a litany of his Kage Bunshins in the entire area doing various things. The original himself was busy trying to cut the leaf inbetween his hands with nothing more than his chakra for the past hour.

After a while, he separated his hands to see the progress he had made and was rather impressed somewhat when he found a jagged line that ran up the leaf, nearly half-way through.

The blonde dropped the leaf to the ground, "Man, this is hard." The blonde muttered as he dropped to his backside to get a breather. Concentrating so much on a single task like the leaf cutting exercise always gave him a headache if he did it for extended periods of time.

As he calmed the raging beast that was his head, he noticed that one of his clones was just leisurely looking up at the sky. He raised an eyebrow in curiosity and walked towards it, "What are you doing?"

The clone looked down, "Staring at that." It lamely pointed upwards.

Naruto looked up to see some sort of bird circling the area, "...You were staring at a bird?" He asked rather incredulously, "Even I don't find staring at a bird interesting." Staring at a bird? Naruto had come accept that his clones were just plain weird and disrespectful in the extreme. But he didn't think any of them had the patience to become birdwatchers. That was just plain fucking weird.

The clone glared at Naruto, "It's just been circling the training ground for like the past ten minutes. I think its been there for longer though."

"...Maybe its just trying to choose which one of us is the best target to crap on…" Another clone interjected from the side, having wondered what the original and the clone were talking about.

With that said, every clone just stopped doing whatever they were doing. Naruto looked around with a blank look, "I know what you're thinking…" He said slowly, "But don't even try it."

Another silence rolled on through the area before on an unseen sudden signal, a clone dispelled itself which started a mass trend as every clone started dispelling itself. Naruto just stood there with a horrified expression that turned into one of anger as he now had to deal with the sudden migraine a couple of hundred clones dispelling brought.

"Fucking, stupid clones and all that bollocks." He muttered angrily as he tried to nurse away the even more painful headache.

"You do realise by extension you're calling yourself stupid?"

Naruto blinked as he looked at the source of voice, and his eyes widened somewhat in recognition, "Yugao-chan!"

Yugao nodded her head in greeting, "Uzumaki-san, how have you been?" The purple haired woman asked. Yugao was dressed in markedly more athletic apparel and in her hand she held a katana in its sheath.

Naruto gave her a nonchalant shrug before grabbing his head, "As you can see, I could be better."

The Anbu member merely shook her head before walking towards him, "Do you mind?" She asked as she stopped beside him. Naruto shook his head and Yugao went through some hand seals before her hands glowed green, "Shousen no Jutsu (Mystical Palm Jutsu)!"

Naruto felt the familial soothing glow of medical chakra on his skin and relaxed, "You're a medic?" He asked.

Yugao shook her head, "No. I just have excellent chakra control. I thought it would be something good to know." She said as she cancelled the jutsu, "I'm primarily a swordswoman as you can see." She said as she raised her katana.

"Awesome." Naruto let out with a grin as he felt his head, migraine gone, "I like to think I am one myself."

"I noticed." The woman stated as she indicated towards the two blades on Naruto's persons, "Duel wielding is a rather difficult area of kenjutsu to master and learn. I hope you realised this when you decided to take it upon yourself."

Naruto laughed sheepishly as he nodded, "Yeah I did realize that." No he hadn't. He had just decided to duel wield because it looked fucking cool that's what.

"Uh huh…" Yugao let out, not at all believing what Naruto had said to be the truth. She then pointed up, "Are you going to call that hawk down?"

Naruto looked up at the hawk then back to the gorgeous older ninja in front of him, "Huh?" He let out, "Call it down? I can do that?" He was no falconer or hawkoner...was that even a thing? Even if it was, he definitely knew he wasn't any of that. So how would he know how to call down the hawk?

Yugao just gave Naruto a deadpan stare before shaking her head in amusement, "I forget that you're a rookie chunin. I should have expected that." She said as she held out her arm and the hawk descended from the sky, "You know that we ninjas use hawks right? Well, they can be used for a variety of means and this hawk has been dispatched for you."

"Dispatched for me?"

Yugao nodded, "Yes." She said as the hawk landed on her arm and held out its leg. Yugao took the message before it took to the skies once more, "It seems you have been summoned for a mission." The Anbu told Naruto as she read the message.

"Mission?" He repeated and Yugao nodded, "Well, that would have been awks if I just let it continue dawdling up there." He said in embarrassment.

"It would have left after half an hour." The female ninja smirked at the younger male ninja, "You're lucky I got here when I did."

Naruto smiled as he made for the tower, "I should pay you back sometime. Later Yugao-chan." He finished off as he ran off.

Yugao shook her head as she watched him disappear, "What a strange boy."

XxX

(Hokage Tower - Mission Assignment Desk)

"Alright!" Naruto exclaimed as he burst into the mission assignment room, "I'm here and ready for to deliver some ass on this mission I'm needed for!" The blonde declared in all of his majestic chunin glory.

"Oh dear kami no…"

"Oh it's Naruto."

"Naruto is the chunin for this mission? I don't know how to feel."

Naruto blinked before looking around the room and spotting Ino, Choji and Tenten just standing at the side, like they had been waiting for someone, "Yo guys, what are you doing here?"

Tenten walked towards him, "Waiting for you apparently." She said, "Apparently, you're the chunin team leader for this mission."

"Team leader?" Naruto repeated rather dumbfoundedly as he pointed to himself. Tenten nodded with an amused smile on her face, "Me?"

Tenten nodded once more, "Yeah, you. This is going to be fun."

Ino and Choji walked up to the group with the portly boy eating his trademark chips, "We're actually going to die." Ino muttered, "With Naruto as team leader, we're actually going to die."

Naruto just gave her a look, really, there was no need for that. Couldn't she have some faith in him?

Choji just laughed, "Oh don't be like that Ino." Ah Choji, such a good hearted guy. No wonder Naruto liked him, "Naruto has to be a chunin for some reason. I'm sure he wouldn't be promoted if he wasn't ready for it."

"But it's Naruto?"

"So?"

"I'd prefer Shikamaru instead of Naruto."

"So would I, but hey, Shikamaru's busy so we're stuck with Naruto."

Naruto's eyebrow twitched as Tenten giggled beside him, "What the hell Choji? Don't compliment me then make fun of me."

Choji laughed weakly, "Haha, sorry about that Naruto." He extended his bag of chips, "Chip?"

Naruto gave him a dry look before shrugging and grabbing a handful, "Thanks. So I'm your team leader for this mission?"

Tenten nodded, "Yeah. Their sensei is busy doing something apparently. Gai-sensei is busy gushing over Lee and Neji's off doing clan stuff."

The sun-kissed blonde turned to look at Tenten, "Then what are you doing here?"

Instead of Tenten being the one to answer, it was actually Ino, "We needed another member for our team and we saw Tenten. She looked like she needed something to do."

"Yeah," Tenten said with a nod of the head, "I haven't done a mission in ages. I need this."

Naruto scratched his head as he nodded, "Okay, so what's the mission?"

Ino passed him the scroll, "A simple C-rank mission." She looked at Naruto, "You can do simple right? I remember back in the academy you couldn't do anything, difficult or simple."

Naruto cast her a dry glare, "Ino, shut up." He said before turning his attention to the scroll. Yeah, this was definitely simple gig. Nothing difficult about it all. All they had to do was babysit a house in one of the north-east regions of Hi no Kuni. Yeah, this was definitely simple, he could do this. He would be bored out of mind, but he could do this and train some more.

'Plus I now have a sparring partner in Tenten.' The blonde thought before accepting the mission, "Alright, we can do this. _I _can do this. Meet up at the front gate in an hour with all your gear."

His first mission as a team leader. It was a long time coming but at least it wouldn't be a baptism by fire like Shikamaru's. All he had to do was babysit a house for two weeks whilst the occupants were away on holiday.

How difficult could that be?

* * *

Stats

Konoha Shinobi

Uzuki Yugao

Ninjutsu: 3.5

Taijutsu: 4

Genjutsu: 3

Intelligence: 3.5

Strength: 2.5

Speed: 3.5

Stamina: 3

Hand Seals: 3

Total: 26

Yamanaka Ino

Ninjutsu: 3

Taijutsu: 1.5

Genjutsu: 1.5

Intelligence: 2.5

Strength: 1.5

Speed: 2.5

Stamina: 2

Hand Seals: 2.5

Total: 17

Akimichi Choji

Ninjutsu: 3.5

Taijutsu: 2

Genjutsu: 0.5

Intelligence: 1

Strength: 3.5

Speed: 1

Stamina: 2.5

Hand Seals: 1.5

Total: 15.5

Tenten

Ninjutsu: 2.5

Taijutsu: 3.5

Genjutsu: 1.5

Intelligence: 2.5

Strength: 1

Speed: 3.5

Stamina: 1.5

Hand Seals: 2

Total: 18

Haruno Sakura

Ninjutsu: 2

Taijutsu: 1

Genjutsu: 3.5

Intelligence: 4

Strength: 1

Speed: 1

Stamina: 1.5

Hand Seals: 4

Total: 18

Suna Shinobi

Sabaku no Gaara

Ninjutsu: 4.5

Taijutsu: 2

Genjutsu: 2.5

Intelligence: 3,5

Strength: 2

Speed: 3

Stamina: 5

Hand Seals: 4

Total: 26.5

Sabaku no Temari

Ninjutsu: 4

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 1.5

Intelligence: 3.5

Strength: 3.5

Speed: 2.5

Stamina: 2.5

Hand Seals: 3

Total: 23

Sabaku no Kankuro

Ninjutsu: 4

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 2

Intelligence: 3.5

Strength: 3

Speed: 2

Stamina: 3.5

Hand Seals: 4

Total: 24.5

* * *

**AN: Well, here's another chapter. Some development here and there. And coming up would be Naruto's first mission as a team leader. Awesome right?**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Nah, I don't own Naruto. Bummer.**

* * *

Chapter 8 - Ninjas, Jacks of All Trades

"Hokage-sama."

Tsunade looked up from the pile of paperwork she had been doing to see a mop of pink hair peeking through her door, "Ah," She let out as tried to recall where he had seen the girl from before, "You're the brat's teammate. Sakura right?" She finished as she waved the girl in.

Sakura nodded her head as she entered the office, "Yes." She was rather surprised that someone as important as Tsunade would remember her name, especially after only meeting her twice for only brief moments, 'Well, the same could be said about Sandaime-sama.'

Tsunade relaxed in her chair as she shook out her hand, 'Damned brat, I bet this is his punishment to me for punching him through that wall.' She groused as she returned the feeling to her hands, "So what can I do for you?"

Sakura gulped as she looked at Tsunade with a determined expression on her face, "Please make me your apprentice!"

Tsunade quirked an amused eyebrow, "Apprentice huh?" She mused, "If I take you on, it won't be easy. I don't have time to waste for undedicated people, being Hokage and all."

Sakura merely replied by instilling even more determination on her face, hands balled up beside her, "I don't care how difficult your training would be. I want to get stronger so that I can do more." Her time in the Forest of Death had shown her how weak she was. She wanted to be able to do more to protect her teammates instead of them protecting her.

Tsunade smirked slightly after being impressed, "Haruno Sakura, Kakashi says you're intelligent and have a strong spirit." And impeccable chakra control too, but that was more down to her low reserves, but that could be solved later, "Alright then, from now on, don't expect things to be easy."

Sakura blinked in surprise before nodding her head emphatically, "Y-Yes!"

"Alright then, first things first, I want you versed in the basic structure of the human body by nine o'clock tomorrow. I'm sure you can find medical books on the matter in the library."

"Yes Tsunade-sama!" Sakura replied hastily as she turned around and headed for the door.

"And Sakura,"

The girl stopped as she opened the door to look behind her, "Yes Tsunade-sama?"

"It's Tsunade-shishou now."

Sakura merely nodded with a smile on her face before leaving the office. Not long after the door closed, another person entered, that person being Hiruzen idly smoking a pipe with a small smile on his face, "Taking another apprentice? What will Shizune ever say?" He asked as he took a seat for himself.

Tsunade waved the teasing enquiry from her genin sensei, "Bah, Shizune's a big girl. I'm sure she wouldn't mind a kouhai." She looked at her sensei, "You realise if you keep smoking that stuff you're slowly killing yourself?"

"I use chakra to protect my lungs." And his tobacco was of the high-quality stuff that gave him a pleasant and relaxed feeling, "You know this."

"Doesn't mean I like it." The buxom chested blonde Hokage muttered, "Huh, I just realised something."

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow in interest, "Go on…"

"It seems like this Team 7 will be the next incarnation of the Sannin." She muttered with wry amusement in her tone. She didn't really know how to take that. Her old team was a mess that she thought had been spawned by some random variable of the universe.

Hiruzen thought about it before chuckling to himself, "I guess that's true."

Sasuke was being trained by Orochimaru and both boys had been touted as geniuses of their generation. Jiraiya was busying himself with Naruto, someone who might as well have been a near identical copy of the man, the only difference being that his perversion was more subdued than Jiraiya's. And Sakura had been taken in by Tsunade, well that was all that was to be said about that entire thing.

"Where is Naruto-kun anyway?" Hiruzen queried, "Today was supposed to be our somewhat biweekly shogi match."

"Oh he's on a mission." Tsunade answered, "His first as a team leader anyway."

"Hmm, I don't really know how to feel about that." Hiruzen loved the boy like a surrogate grandson and would admit that he would trust the boy implicitly. But he didn't know if Naruto was ready to lead a team yet, chunin or not.

Tsunade gave her old sensei a wry grin, "Well, you'll find out in a week or two."

XxX

(Northeast Hi no Kuni)

"Seriously," Naruto muttered as he was on point of the formation of the newly ordained Team Naruto, "Where is this house?" He asked for the umpteenth time. They had been doing nothing but walking along an old country road, "There's nothing but fields and fields here." He turned his head to the right of him to look at Tenten who was the one in charge of navigation after it had become knowledge that Naruto couldn't read a map for jack, "Are you sure we're going the right way Tenten-chan?"

Tenten sighed as she nodded, again, "Yes I'm sure Naruto." She glared at him lightly, "If you're not convinced why don't you lead us there? Oh wait, you can't read a map."

Naruto let out a dejected sigh, "That's mean Tenten-chan." He had been having to deal with his entire team, except for nice guy Chouji, making remarks about him and his inability to read a map properly. It wasn't his fault that he might have slept through that lesson or missed it because it was boring or some other thing.

Tenten just stuck out her tongue at him, "Then learn to read a map."

"I will," Naruto said with a nod. He was definitely going to do that. It was embarrassing to be a chunin and not being able to read a bloody map, especially when he was the one leading an operation, "When we find this damned house."

It had taken Naruto and company a little over a day to arrive to the region of Hi no Kuni where their mission objective was supposed to be located. The blonde leader of the team could have argued that they could have arrived there within a day if some people in his squad (not pointing any fingers *coughs* Ino and Chouji *coughs*) didn't have stamina problems.

Ino, in her defence and her teammates, would point out that it wouldn't have mattered anyway since if it wasn't for someone (*coughs* Naruto *coughs*) who had lead them in the wrong direction when they had left Konoha for a good hour or so. Naruto would defend himself, before the entire argument would break down into them having a pointless argument about nothing.

Ino whipped her hair as she walked on the other side of Tenten, "Saying that won't make us find it any faster." She pointed out, a little bit of irritation in her voice also at the fact they had still yet to find the house they were supposed to look after, "If Tenten says we're going the right way, we're going the right way." At times like this, it was best to deter to the most experienced ninja in the group, and with Tenten being a year older than everybody else here, Tenten was the most experienced.

And Tenten seemingly enjoyed this as she cooed at Ino, "Aww thank you Ino. That's so nice of you to have my back."

"Well, us girls have to keep together to control this idiot here." The platinum blonde haired girl remarked with an easy grin on her face.

"Hey!" Naruto let out in indignation, "Don't make fun of your chunin team leader. I will be forced to discipline you!"

When Ino heard this, she couldn't help but let a teasing grin come across her beautiful features, "Discipline?" She literally purred out, causing Naruto to turn to face her, "Discipline how exactly Naruto? Nothing too rough I hope." She finished off with a wink in his direction.

Naruto just abruptly stopped and gaped, as a seeping red colour came to his face, as Ino casually strutted past him with a triumphant look on her face. Beside her, Tenten had rather enjoyed that little interchange as she also walked past the blonde.

Chouji who had been keeping silent and enjoying himself with his chips came to a halt beside Naruto and have him a pat on the back, "Don't think into it too much Naruto. She was just messing with you."

Naruto's brain eventually booted right back up before shaking his head, "I-I know that!" He muttered as he tried to regain his cool, "I was just surprised that's all. Doesn't she like Sasuke?" He asked as he resumed walking alongside Chouji, forgetting all about the formation he had set up.

Chouji gave him a shrug as an answer, "She does. But he's not around anymore is he? She just needs something new to occupy her time since she can't chase after him anymore." Due to him not being in Konoha and all that malachy.

"So by something new to do," Naruto began as he looked at Chouji dryly, "She's going to start to mess with me?"

"Probably." Chouji said with a nod as he dug into his bag of chips, "The trick is to not let her get to you. If you show that she's getting to you, the more she'll keep doing it."

Naruto just looked at Chouji with widened eyes. Who knew Chouji was so insightful? Then again, this was about his teammate and family friend, so of course he would know more about her and what she would do than most.

Naruto scratched the back of his head, "Thanks for the advice Chouji."

"No problem Naruto, anytime."

Now the trick to this entire thing was somehow not showing that whatever Ino was going to do next wasn't going to affect him. Good thing that for the past few months, he had been hanging around with probably the worst male influence on a growing teenage boy in the world.

Yeah...he can do this. If Ino was going to play that game, Naruto can play back, 'Can't believe I'll actually have to thank ero-sennin about this stuff in the future.'

XxX

"That's not a house." Naruto commented as he and the others stood in front of a rather large ornate looking gate, "That's a fucking mansion."

And it was. It was large, Naruto was counting four floors and on each floor more than a dozen windows were present. But between the gate and mansion was a large sprawling area of green that was the lawn that had various decorative fauna among other things.

Tenten just shook her head in amusement at the size of the house, "Just think about it, a couple dozen A or S-rank missions and you would be able to live in a house like that in the future." Being a ninja was a rather dangerous profession, but damned didn't it pay well.

Most accomplished ninjas could be retired by the time they were in their early twenties with the amount of money they earned with the right missions.

Naruto scoffed, "I'm not in it for the money." He was in the profession because he wanted the kick-ass hat that came with being the top dog ninja of the house. Actually, in fact, the majority of ninjas weren't in the job for the money, but more along the lines of patriotism for their home village.

"Neither am I, but hey, I'm just saying I wouldn't mind owning a place like that sometime."

Chouji looked around, "So what do we do now?" He asked as he got the other's attention back on the job. There was nothing in the immediate area that looked like a bell or something of the likes that would attract attention to the front gate.

Naruto noticed this before slamming a fist like a hammer into an open palm, "Why don't we just jump over it?"

Ino just slapped him on the back of the head just out of instinct. If she hadn't Tenten would have, "And what?" Ino began as she looked at Naruto dryly, "Let them think we're thieves or something."

Naruto just returned with a look of his own in her direction, "We're ninja." Thievery wasn't exactly out of the realm of possible missions they could be called upon to do. There was even lock-picking and fundamental thievery lessons back in the academy.

Ino just looked at him, "So? That doesn't matter."

"So what? Are we going to just stand here and hope for someone to see us or something?" Cause that didn't seem like something Naruto would enjoy to do. Standing out here, in the cold, early autumn night.

At that, Tenten couldn't help but agree with Naruto, "He has a point. We can't just stand here."

"Excuse me." The group of four turned around to see a dark-haired young woman with a calm, even look on her face sitting on a horse drawn open carriage, wearing a black and white maid outfit looking at them in curiosity then recognition, "You must be the ninja that the master hired." She looked them over some more, seemingly somewhat underwhelmed, "I had expected...more."

The team just looked at the woman with an even look about themselves. Ino made to move forward but was grabbed quickly by Tenten and Chouji, "Alright, who the hell do you think you are lady? Come down here and let me kick your sorry ass." Make fun of her does she? Well, let's see how a untrained civilian maid could go against a girl who had been trained to kill since she was six.

Even though he shared the same thought as Ino, Naruto managed to control himself and his mouth and looked at the maid, "Hey, don't judge us because we look young. We're pretty damn good at our jobs, either wise we wouldn't have been assigned this mission."

The young woman merely shrugged, "Whatever you say runt."

Naruto just stopped and looked at her with a calm look on his face. In fairness, credit had to be given to Naruto since he didn't immediately jump the woman, one being that it would be unprofessional and the other being that there was someone else willing to kick her ass for him. And not even including the fact that seeing Ino scrap it out with the maid would be pretty awesome due to the fact that both females were pretty hot.

'Catfight.' The thought went through Naruto's head, "Chouji, Tenten, let Ino go and Ino kick her ass. That's an order from your captain." He calmly ordered as he continued to look at the maid.

The three genin just looked at Naruto with different looks on their persons. Chouji and Tenten just stared at Naruto in shock and Ino with a wide grin on her face.

Before any of them could act, a new voice called out, this one older sounding, "Mizuri." Once more, the group of ninja turned around to face in the direction of the mansion and on the other side of the gate was another woman dressed in a maid outfit but this one showing the signs of advanced age, "What have I said about instigating guests?"

The young woman on the carriage, Mizuri just shrugged, "I don't know. I never listen whenever you go on one of your tangents."

Naruto and company just sweatdropped at the answer. How did this woman still have her job if this was how she acted every single time? She must have been damn good at it if she wasn't fired or anything like that.

The older woman seemingly didn't care, having expected something like that from the woman and merely opened the gate, "Apologies ninja-san. Mizuri can be quite...difficult." She said as she invited them in.

The group entered the mansion grounds and followed the older maid towards the mansion itself, with Mizuri following behind on the carriage, "Then why do you have her work for you?" Ino questioned. She didn't like this Mizuri girl, she was just down right rude.

"Because she's good at her job." The older maid answered, "And the master is quite fond of her rather blunt demeanour. He's sort of an eccentric." She finished off with a weary sigh escaping her lips.

'Poor woman.' Tenten thought as she followed behind as she could recognise a sigh like that from anywhere, 'I hope this master isn't as bad as Lee or Gai-sensei.' Because if he was, she was just going to walk away from the mission in its entire entirety. She had enough to deal with those two alone. She didn't need more nightmares to ruin her sleep.

They eventually made their way towards the front door and the maid led the way in before stopping to face the ninja, "My apologies, I never gave you my name." She clasped her hands in front of her and bowed, "My name is Ao and I'm the Head Maid here. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Naruto grinned as he returned the familiarities, "Naruto, future Hokage of Konoha at your service." He greeted in return. On a side note, the blonde thought he should get a business card with those exact words for the future, "I'm the guy in charge of this little group of misfits."

Tenten shook her head at Naruto's antics, "I'm Tenten."

Ino raised a hand in greeting, "Ino, pleasure to meet you."

Chouji just munched some chips, "Chouji at your service. By the way, do you have any snacks?" He queried.

Ino smacked him on the back of his head, "Chouji! That's rude!" She admonished the chubby boy.

Ao looked the group over before laughing lightly, "What a lively group you are. I'm surprised you're ninjas."

At that moment, Mizuri, who had taken the carriage to the back of the house, appeared in the main entrance hallway, "Ao-san, I've put away all the groceries."

That was quick. They had seen the groceries in the carriage and they were quite a few. And she was saying she had managed to put all of them away in a few minutes since she had left them? Ao hadn't been joking, she must have been really good at her job.

"Thank you Mizuri." Ao said to the younger woman, "You can leave now. Enjoy your holiday."

The girl silently nodded and left through the main entrance, closing one of the large ornate looking doors behind her. Ino watched her leave before turning to face the older maid, "Holiday?"

The woman in question nodded, "Yes, around this time, when the master and his wife leave for their yearly excursions, they let all the stuff leave on holiday."

"So you're leaving too?" She nodded again confirmation. Ino looked around the inside of the mansion, "So who looks after the house when all of you are gone?" It didn't seem really that smart to leave such a house alone for a large amount of time. In fear of thieves and everything like that.

"Uh Ino…" The platinum blonde haired girl turned her head to face Naruto who's face was set in a deadpan expression, "We've been hired by them to look after the house," He began slowly, "What do you think that means?"

Ino's mouth widened into a 'O' shape as she realised what she had just said. Of course they would hire someone like them to look after the house wouldn't they? Last time, it was probably a different platoon that was hired. But first…

Ino flicked Naruto on the nose, getting him to recoil slightly as he nursed his nose, "What the hell? That stings!" He let out in a rather indignant manner.

Ino pouted as she crossed her arms over her developing chest, "Don't get smart with me Naruto!" Having Naruto point out something obvious to you was rather embarrassing for Ino. Chunin or not, she would always remember him as the blonde kid that came bottom in the academy. In fact, she was still getting used to the whole chunin thing.

Naruto just gaped at her with an incredulously as Tenten patted him on the back, "It's alright Naruto. Don't let it get to you."

"Actually, the boy with the exquisite blonde hair is wrong and the other one is correct!"

Ao sighed as she turned towards the direction of one of the rooms. From the doorway, a rather short, plump man, just a few inches taller than Naruto walked into the room. He was dressed in a rather flamboyant, brightly coloured noble attire with green hair and dark-eyes.

The group of ninjas just looked at the man as he hopped into the room before doing a pirouette in front of them. He stopped and leaned in to get a better look at Naruto and company, "Well I'll be, aren't you all just cute little darlings?" He said as his head slowly panned from one side of the group of ninja to the other, slightly lingering on Naruto.

The four teens hesitantly took a step back from the man, "Eh thank you?" Naruto said unsurely for the group. The man in front of them seemed to be sizing them up, seemingly seeing how much they were worth.

The man dandily waved off Naruto, "Oh don't thank me Blondie-chan. May I say, your hair is simply beautiful. I have never seen such radiance apart from the sun itself." He shook his head as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing, "And those whisker marks on your cheeks, those blue, blue eyes, oh my, I would just love to gobble you up."

Naruto just blinked and squinted his eyes at the man, "...Did you just hit on me?" He was just a few seconds away from walking out of the house in its entirety.

The man had an affronted expression on his face, "Oh goodness gracious no." He said in a slightly high pitched voice, "I'm a happily married man. I would never betray the crowning diamond of my world."

"What? You're married?" Naruto asked as he looked at the strangely dressed man blankly, "Seriously? You?"

A regal laughter floated through the area before a woman wearing a high-class kimono that looked cheap on her appeared as she walked down the flight of stairs in front of them, "Is it so unbelievable that my husband could be married."

Naruto and Chouji's jaws just dropped as they looked at the rather remarkable woman in front of them. She had long, dark coloured hair, porcelain like and green eyes. Even Ino and Tenten seemed somewhat jealous of her.

"Oh kami," Naruto breathed out, "So hot...just, so hot…"

"Naruto…!" Tenten and Ino tried to admonish, but their hearts weren't into it as they followed a similar line of thought like that of Naruto. Not that they would admit it themselves.

The woman came to a stop beside her husband and linked arms with him, "I do get that reaction from time to time." She said with apparent amusement in her voice, "Afternoon Konoha shinobi, my name is Izumi and this here is my husband Takashi. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The four ninjas just nodded their heads and lamely greeted themselves, "Hi, nice to meet you…"

Naruto still wasn't comprehending it though, so he turned towards the man himself, "H-How?" He just had to know. It wasn't making any sense, how was someone like her attracted to someone like him. He then blinked and looked around, "It's the money isn't it?"

Takashi merely raised an eyebrow in curiosity whilst his wife beside him laughed once more, "I should feel insulted that you would think me a gold digger, but it has happened so many times that I care not anymore."

At least Naruto had the grace to look shame faced before deciding to quickly change the subject and get onto business, "Alright, since we've all done introducing ourselves to each other, Team Naruto reporting for duty."

The woman smiled, "What a professional little soldier."

"And a cute one too!"

"Oh stop teasing the poor boy dear." Izumi said light-heartedly when she saw Naruto's expression. She released her arm from her husband, "Well then, since you will be taking care of our home for us, why don't we take a tour of the house?" She offered with a gentle smile on her face.

"Sure."

After that, Izumi, her husband and their head maid showed them around the mansion, showing them the various rooms. If it hadn't been said before, then it had to be said again, this house was fucking huge.

Naruto guessed he was going to have make a ton load of clones just to look after each room separately. If that was the case, no wonder only one team had been assigned this mission. If he was around, that meant numbers were pointless to worry about.

After showing another room, Tenten voiced a question that had been eating at her, "If you don't mind me asking, but why did you hire ninja house sitters? Why not just any sort of house sitter?"

The married couple looked at each other before Takashi looked at Tenten, "Well, we do do that." Naruto smirked to himself in amusement at the 'do do' part. Was it childish? No way, it was hilarious as all hell, "But there's been a spate of burglaries recently in this region that target homes like this."

The beautiful wife of the rather strange man nodded her head, confirming her husband's story, "And it all happens during times when the owners of the house are away. Whoever they are, they are good since they only take things of high value."

"Then this place must be a gold mine for them." Ino noted as she noticed another painting of high quality, "They would make a large amount of money with half of the stuff I saw in the entrance hall."

"Yes they would, but it isn't that simple." Izumi said as she followed behind Ao who was leading the way, "Some of our possessions can be considered worthless to what we have in our vault."

"How worthless?" Tenten queried.

"Like millions or billions of ryo kind of worthless."

"That's pretty worthless."

Ino pursed her lips as she thought about it, "So essentially, we're not just looking after your home, we're also looking after your valuables?"

Izumi nodded, but once again, Naruto decided to open his mouth to point out the obvious, "I thought that came with the territory of house sitting?"

Tenten giggled lightly at that as Ino turned to stare at Naruto dryly, "Oh don't be a smart-ass Naruto. Nobody likes a smartass."

"Tell that to Shikamaru." He was a smartass, and Naruto rather liked him as a person, constant lethargy-ness aside.

"Oh be quiet."

XxX

(Elsewhere - Konoha)

"Finally…" Shikamaru mumbled as he lazily made his way through the gates of Konoha, "I thought that was never going to end."

Walking beside him was the same jounin who had overseen the Chunin Exam finals a year back, Shiranui Genma. Genma was a rather tall and casual looking man with brown hair covered by his bandana styled headband. He wore the standard Konoha shinobi attire and in his mouth was a senbon that he was idly sitting there.

"Welcome to the joys of patrol duty kid." Genma mused as he walked beside Shikamaru, along with a bunch of other ninjas that were returning from their stint on the patrol routes, "Soon enough, you'll learn that being a ninja doesn't entail all kinds of action."

Shikamaru merely shook his head, "I don't want action." That was obvious enough with the fact that he came from the Nara clan. The laziest son's of bitches that could exist anywhere on the continent, "I just want to relax." He then remembered something, "Hey Genma-san,"

"Yeah?"

"Gate guarding duty," The lazy Nara began as he glanced back in the direction of the small wooden booth, "Is there some sort of roster for that particular duty or do you have to sign up for it?" That little assignment seemed to be right down his alley. Just sitting there, doing nothing most of the time and the rest of the time, just checking people in. And since it was a two man job, he would just leave that for his partner to do it.

Yeah, that was the dream job right there. He had to get himself on some of that.

Genma laughed, he should have expected something like that coming out of the kid's mouth, "Wouldn't know. I've never been assigned that particular duty." His talents were best served as elite bodyguard of all sorts of important people, "Maybe you should ask Kotetsu or Izumo. They would know since they've been stuck with that particular duty since they made chunin."

"Kotetsu and Izumo?"

Genma lazily nodded his head, "Yeah, those guys. The same guys that signed us out when we left." The older and more experienced ninja laughed to himself in amusement, "Although I don't know whether they'll be happy to know someone is after their job."

Another ninja nearby overheard the conversation and laughed, "Izumo would probably thank whatever deity is looking out for him and Kotetsu?" He just laughed again at his own question, seemingly insinuating that laughing was the best way to answer it.

Genma along with a bunch of other ninja who were in on the whole joke joined in with the laughter. Shikamaru would've looked around in confusion if it wasn't for the fact that his attention was attracted to someone who he had thought he had seen the last of.

Said person turned around when she felt herself being watched and noticed it was from the pineapple haired chunin. She blinked as she tried to recall him from somewhere, "I know you," She muttered as she scrunched up her face in thought, "I definitely know you." She muttered to herself before blinking in realisation, "Oh yeah, you're the bastard that made me knock myself out during the prelims in the Chunin Exams!"

Shikamaru just looked on at her with his usual expression, "...What are you doing here? Aren't you an Oto-nin?" He questioned, completely ignoring the look of filtering rage that was being directed in his direction.

"Former Oto-nin." Kin replied flippantly. Seeing Shikamaru for some reason angered her, mostly because of the way he had defeated her during the exams. Even though it was a brilliant piece of thinking from Shikamaru's part, it was still embarrassing to Kin whenever she thought about it.

Shikamaru took that in and merely nodded, "Yeah...okay, whatever. I'm done." He immediately began walking off again at a slow pace, the other ninjas he had arrived with already in the distance, "I'm now going to go home now."

Kin raised and eyebrow, "You aren't curious why I'm not in a prison cell or anything?" She asked as she also walked off in the same direction as Shikamaru.

"Not really." It had nothing to do with him, and if she was being allowed to walk around the village freely enough, then she wasn't considered dangerous or anything like that.

"So you're just accepting it?" Kin asked somewhat incredulously. The vast majority people viewed her presence in the village with much suspicion. That was normal and she could deal with that. But someone like Shikamaru just taking her presence as granted baffled him.

"Hey," Shikamaru drawled, "You're not in prison, the higher-ups are the one's that make decisions like that. I'm just a lowly rookie chunin so far down the totem pole, who am I to question what they are doing?"

Kin slowly nodded, "That's responsible."

Not really, questioning why the higher echelons of the village were doing what they were doing took too much effort for Shikamaru to even think about. And anyway, even if he did think about it, what could he do? He didn't hold any weight or power or anything like that in the village. Which suited him just fine.

He didn't want to think about all the troublesome things that came with having any sort of pull in the hierarchy. And it also meant that if he had anything like that, he had clearly gone mad and had overshot his goal of being nothing more than average in the grand scheme of things that was his life.

"How long are you going to follow me?" Shikamaru asked as he noted that Kin was still walking beside him.

"I'm not doing it by choice. I'm also not a fan of being associated with you either." Kin replied, "My place is in this direction. The next street over."

Shikamaru just grunted in confirmation to show that he had heard what she had just said.

XxX

(With Team Naruto - Northeast Hi no Kuni)

"This is probably the easiest detail I'll ever have to do." Tenten mused as she sat on a folding chair, facing the rather large swimming pool that sat in the back of mansion, enjoying the summer/spring sun basking her body, "I should get Naruto to work with me some more."

Ino, lying right beside her fellow Konoha kunoichi nodded her head in agreement, "I know. Who knew Naruto could be so useful?" Her lips twitched in amusement, "Is he still not looking at us?"

Tenten lifted her head up to look ahead of her at the veritable amount of blonde haired teenagers going around patrolling the limits of the property, "Yeah…" She said slowly, amusement in her voice as she laid her head back down, "He's doing everything but looking at us directly. Who knew Naruto was so innocent?"

Ino scoffed, "Naruto, innocent? Yeah right. You clearly haven't seen that stupid _jutsu_ of his." She finished off rather derisively at the word 'jutsu', contempt and all other kinds of mal feelings in her tone.

It had been a day since Team Naruto had officially started their mission. The two owners of the house had gone off on their holiday after showing them around and the head maid had soon left the house in their care afterwards.

Since the mansion was far too large to be looked over by four people by themselves, Naruto had used his must have well been tailor made jutsu to create an army of sorts to serve as guards. All his clones were placed all over the mansion, some walking around in the open, others manning the mansion and perimeter in Henges (Transformations).

The original Naruto was currently perched on a large Oak tree on the other side of the pool. He sneezed as he looked into the distance, "They're talking about me." He mumbled to himself as he rubbed his nose, "I just know it."

The reason why Naruto wasn't facing them was because both girls were currently sunbathing...on a mission. Why they even had swimwear with them was beyond Naruto. He was pretty sure some of his clones stationed on the mansion roof were more interested in the two girls behind him than actually doing their jobs.

Damn, who knew Tenten was so hot? Ino was a granted babe that was for sure. He knew that, pretty much every boy in the academy knew Ino was one of the prettiest girls around, but Tenten? Dammit man, she was a friend, he didn't want to know that she was hot.

'Stupid kunoichis and their stupid, incredibly hot and sexy bodies.' Was their such a thing as an ugly kunoichi? If their was, he would love to meet one. Just to put a whole new perspective on the whole, 'All kunoichis are hot' matter that had been cemented as an undeniable truth of the world, 'Is there some kind of screening they do during the academy or something?'

Now Naruto wasn't a stranger to the female body, but all his experience in the matter came from...'older' magazines so to speak and thus he had never seen the real thing live. Jiraiya had tried to egg him so many times to peek along with him into the female sides of the bath houses, but as much as he wanted too, he had denied not wanting to become like his sensei.

Konoha had too many perverts for his liking...even if he was secretly one himself.

"Hey Naruto,"

Naruto looked down at the ground and nearly fell of the branch he was sitting on, "I-Ino? What do you want?" Seriously, what cup was she? Those were definitely bigger than Sakura's. Puberty was definitely playing favourites here.

Ino grinned slyly as she saw Naruto nearly fall off and his attempts to keep his head staring right at her face, instead of his eyes drifting down. Which was hard for him, since he was looking down on her and Ino wasn't making it easy for him to just keep his eyes at the right place.

"Why don't you join me and Tenten at the pool?" She queried, trying and failing to hide her amusement on the whole matter.

'I have the willpower of a monk.' The blonde haired ninja thought as he somehow managed to keep his eyes directly on Ino's forehead, no matter how inviting or enticing looking further down was, "No thanks, someone has to keep a look-out."

"You have kami knows how many clones all over the place." Ino deadpanned, "I think you have more than enough eyes on the look-out. Get down here and enjoy the sun with the rest of us."

"Chouji isn't enjoying the sun." Naruto remarked rather dryly. His absent teammate was actually inside, gorging himself in the pantry. Naruto was sure Takeshi would come to regret saying that the ninja could have anything they want in that particular room.

Ino waved off his rather good point, "Oh that doesn't matter. Come down here!" She gave him a stern look, "Don't make me use my Shintenshin (Mind Body Switch) on you!" She threatened as she put her hands on the special seal of her clan.

Naruto blinked. Wait a second, wasn't that jutsu the one that let Ino take control of someone's body by projecting her spirit into it? Oh no, he couldn't let her do that. He didn't even want to know what would happen if Ino's spirit entered his. Simply because he was sharing his body with a mass of living hate and anger.

"I'm coming down! I'm coming down!" The blonde boy said hurriedly as he scampered down the tree as quickly as he could.

Ino just lowered her hands with a raised eyebrow as she looked at Naruto at his weird reaction to her threat, "You could have just jumped down you know?"

Naruto landed on the ground and patted himself down, "I'm sorry, I didn't feel like having a girl rummage through my head and all."

Ino just grinned at him as she gently dragged him towards the pool, "Ah, I see. You didn't want me to see all those dirty thoughts you were having about me and Tenten weren't you?"

Naruto opened and closed his mouth several times like a fish as he gaped and tried to think of something to say. He finally managed to get himself in control and just cast a dry glare in Ino's direction, "Don't mess with me Ino. You don't want to know what happens when you mess with me."

"What if I want to know what happens to those who mess with you?"

Naruto just looked at her before smirking, "Remember that time you had an accident at your family's flower shop with all those man-eating plants just appearing out of nowhere?"

Ino looked at Naruto for a bit before a memory slowly came forth from the dredges of her mind. She just stopped and looked at Naruto with wide eyes, "That was _you_?" Naruto just grinned as he walked by himself towards the pool, "Why would you do that? I couldn't even step in there for weeks after that!" She fumed as she walked quickly to catch up with Naruto.

"Hey," Naruto began, "I was bored and I wanted to mess with you after you pulled my chair away from underneath me in class."

"That was a harmless prank!"

"Well, at least you learned why nobody actually tried to pull any of that prank stuff on me." Naruto said with a smirk on his features, "Because when you prank Uzumaki Naruto, prepare to suffer greatly, because I am the Prankster Prince of Mischief of Konoha!" He finished of rather grandiosely as they neared where Tenten was sat.

"That is the weirdest title ever Naruto." Tenten remarked offhandedly, "Nice of you to join us by the way. Did it get boring just looking out at trees? If it did, don't think Ino brought you here so you can ogle at us instead."

Naruto just looked at Tenten before having to quickly look away from her, 'Okay, not as big as Ino, but she definitely is packing.' He thought to himself. Dammit, where was Chouji? If Chouji was here, he wouldn't have to suffer alone, "Haha, very funny Panda-ko. Why would I even want to ogle you? If I did that, lots of animal groups would be in outrage over that."

Tenten just slowly sat herself up on her folding chair and looked at Naruto, "This again? Do you really want to start this again? I thought I kicked your ass hard enough last time for you to understand not to do that."

Naruto lamely raised a hand as if he was about to prove a point, "You didn't actually beat me last time. I was actually kicking your ass before I thought it was fun to whip out the swords." He stopped and thought about it, "I should actually stop doing that. You're better than me at weapons. Why do I keep coming at you with weapons?"

Ino patted him on the cheek in the same manner as one would do to a child, "That's because you're stupid Naru-chan."

The blonde chunin swatted Ino's hand away and turned to cast a dry glare at his fellow blonde, "...Naru-chan?" He said slowly, "Don't you start to Ino. I don't care how hot you are, I'll kick your ass."

Tenten merely smirked lightly, "Shouldn't have said that Naru-chan~" She said in sing-song.

Naruto knew that. He knew immediately the moment the sentence had left his lips that he was going to regret calling Ino hot...even if she was hot. Because Ino would just tease the hell out of him for that comment. He just knew it.

And the smirk that was slowly forming on her lips wasn't helping with trying to ease his fears about the whole thing.

"Aw, you think I'm hot Naruto?" Ino practically purred out. She glanced in Tenten's direction, "Did you hear that Tenten? He thinks I'm hot. That makes me feel all so many kinds of special inside."

Simply giving up at this point at the whole matter, Naruto merely nodded his head, "Yeah, I think you're hot. I also think Tenten is hot." This caught the twin bun-haired girls attention as she raised an eyebrow and looked at Naruto, "In fact, I think every kunoichi, even the one that nearly killed me when I went to get Sasuke was hot. It's a universal truth Ino, every kunoichi is hot. So that doesn't make you special."

This was Naruto's gambit in shutting down whatever Ino had in mind before it began. By telling her the cold hard truth. The truth with being that he thought she along with many other kunoichi were hot. His thinking processing being that if she knew that she was one of many, she would just give up and stop messing with him.

It was foolproof. There was no way it would fail. He just knew it.

"...So am I hotter than Sakura? Come on, you can tell me. I won't tell Sakura, it would be just between us three."

...Well, it should have worked anyway, "I'm not answering that." Reason being that yes, Ino was hotter than Sakura. The platinum blonde haired girl, if he was shallow enough to say,...more proportioned body than Sakura.

Tenten just smirked as if she just learned something new, "By saying that, you're saying Ino is."

"I am?" Naruto let out incredulously. How could his answer be taken as that? Girls were weird, "Can we just change the subject please?" He begged after a while. This conversation would be far more comfortable if it was being held with the boys, and probably would have been more enjoyable if it was with someone like Kiba.

Ino wasn't feeling like it since she still had avenues upon avenues of teasing she could take with Naruto, but the more experienced ninja of the three wasn't having it. She had got her kicks for the time being, "So about this kunoichi that nearly killed you…"

Naruto immediately clammed up, "Yeah, I'm not talking about that. Classified and everything."

"Even if Ino shows you her boobs?"

"Hey!" Came the indignant yell from the platinum blonde haired female ninja, "I'm not that kind of girl!"

XxX

(Elsewhere - Hi no Kuni)

"She's late." A burly bald man with grey eyes growled out as he impatiently tapped his index finger on his knee as he sat on the stump of a fallen tree, "What's taking her so long?"

Sitting underneath the shade of a tree, a young man with messy pink hair merely rolled his black eyes, "It's only been ten minutes. Why are you so impatient Kei-san?"

"I'm not." The now revealed Kei replied, face cast with an angry look about it, "I just don't like it when we don't keep to a schedule. She better have a reason for this shit."

"I do have a reason actually."

Kei turned his head to face the new voice, "Mizuri," He began slowly as the maid of the mansion walked towards the two men, "Let's hear your reason then. If I don't like it, I'll kill you."

The maid, now dressed in a black and white sleeveless battle kimono and red obi tied around her waist, came to a halt underneath the same shade as the pink-haired young man, "You can try you old bastard."

Kei growled as he gripped his knees tightly, "Apologise now you whore." He said slowly in a threatening manner.

Mizuri went to open her mouth and make some sort of retort but was stopped by a burst of killing intent coming from the rather pleasant sounding young man beside her, "Okay, okay, as much as it amuses me every time you guys get into one of your tiffs, can we just put aside that for the minute and get back to business?"

Kei and Mizuri glared at each other, before both backed down from an impending conflict. Kei with a grunt and Mizuri with a scoff.

The pink haired man just merely smiled, "That's better." He looked up towards Mizuri, "So what took you so long anyway?"

"I was doing some recon on the ninjas that those fools hired."

The man nodded his head, "And," He began, "Anything to worry about?"

Mizuri laughed, "Not really. They aren't anything special. They're kids from that tree hugging village, can't be older than thirteen at least. One of them is a chunin though."

The grey-eyed young man laughed, "Chunin at thirteen eh? He must have some modicum of talent then." He got up from his seat, "Well it doesn't matter. They won't stop us. If they get in our way, kill them." He began to walk away from the meeting area, "Come on, let's go." He ordered.

Mizuri did as she was instructed and followed the man slightly behind him, along with the burly man known as Kei.

After a few minutes, among one of the branches on the tree that Mizuri had been standing underneath, the air shimmered before a figure formed casually lying against the trunk of the tree revealed itself.

The figure was a male with shaggy black hair and amber eyes. Covering the lower portion of his mouth was a face mask that extended down to a sleeveless black shirt. Along with the shirt, he wore black pants with white wrappings around the ankles, black sandals and a grey apron skirt. Around his arms were black arm warmers that extended down from his elbows to his hands to make arm guards.

He looked in the direction the trio of people had walked off too. If he wasn't wrong, wasn't the direction his targets had gone off to the same direction that one of the potential new recruits of the group he worked for was currently at?

Oh well, if it was, it didn't matter. He still had a mission to do. Why he couldn't just outright kill them then and there was beyond him, but orders were orders. Oh well.

* * *

**AN: Suffered a bit of writer's block on this chapter, but I managed to pull through. Personally, I don't think it's my best, but future chapter's will be much better than that. So I do apologize.**

**Leave a review, Raiden out.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: Yeah, Naruto? I don't own it.**

* * *

Chapter 9 - No Such Thing As An Easy Detail

Ino yawned lightly into her hand as she walked down one of the many encompassing hallways of the mansion they were currently guarding. The sun had set and everyone else barring Naruto's clones had gone off to their own respective rooms they had been given to sleep for the night.

Tenten hadn't been joking that this was probably the best and easiest C-rank mission that they could have ever have. And that was simply because of Naruto of course. Him and his strangely corporeal clones had everything on lockdown, doing the look-out duties of the perimeter, something they would have needed to do in shifts.

For Ino, this might as well have been an impromptu holiday. The weather was absolutely brilliant, it could only be described as a great time for bringing out the beach wear and trying to get a tan outside the rather large pool. And then there was the fact that there was an underground home cinema full of all kinds of movies.

She actually wished that the owners wouldn't be away for just a measly week. She wanted to spend enough time here for as long as she could before going back home, where she will probably be forced to work in the dreariness that was the Yamanaka Flower Shop because of her dad.

A rather loud sound coming from outside managed to get her attention. Mostly, such a sound should have garnered her attention, but after spending the first night here, she could easily put the sound to the only person that could possibly be up late at this time of the night.

Shrugging her slender shoulders, Ino turned on her heel and made her way to the backyard.

Outside, in the backyard, Naruto cursed and grumbled as he dusted himself of smoot and smoke, 'Stupid clones,' He cursed mentally as he tried to get his bearings together, 'Couldn't they dispel themselves _when_ I'm not practising my fuuinjutsu?' He continued. Because that was really annoying. Especially when it resulted in him getting a slight headache and thus causing him to mess up the sealing array he was making and nearly blow himself up.

He had learned early on that it wasn't best for him to create clones and give them tasks to do over a period of time. He only learned that after he had made ten clones to read through a book on fuuinjutsu theory Jiraiya had given him and then repeat until they understood certain principles just like that.

It had taken the clones a little over a week until they could say that had reached that level of understanding before they dispelled themselves. Naruto, who had been on the other side of Konoha doing some intensive training had immediately blacked-out as the memories of the clones came right back at him.

That had not been a great day as Tsunade had told him that he had put himself into a mini coma with that little stunt he had pulled off and told him not to do it again. And Naruto had promised her that he wouldn't.

...Promise that he wouldn't leave clones to do something for over a week that is. She never said anything about letting them do it over a couple of days. Was that pushing it? It probably was, but it was all in the name of training and getting ready to face a bunch of guys that could probably take on people like Jiraiya and have a probability of winning.

He had to get to that level of tough if he didn't want to get run-over by people like them.

"So how did this happen?"

Naruto blinked as he turned his head to face the new person in the area, "Ino!" He greeted with a grin before blinking again, "Urgh, I didn't wake you up again did I? Sorry about that." Maybe he should sleep during the night and then train during the day? That was what most normal people did. But he wasn't exactly normal or want to be described as normal. He preferred extraordinary.

Ino rolled her eyes as she took a seat nearby, "If you're sorry, you can do what the others do."

Naruto got himself up and continued to dust himself off, this time being his pants, "And that is?"

"Sleep during the night." Ino more or less deadpanned as she idly looked over her nails, "That's what us normal people do. But then again, you probably have too much energy for that." She looked up in thought, "Probably the reason why you act all sorts of spazzy every now and then."

Naruto gave her a look, "I'm not spazzy." He defended himself. He wasn't spazzy, when did he ever act spazzy?

The Yamanaka girl just gave him a sly look, "Of course you would say that wouldn't you?" It was only natural to try and defend a particular derisive trait about yourself. Well, that is unless you were Shikamaru and was rather proud about that trait of yourself.

Naruto just continued looking at her before shaking his head, "Whatever." He said as he looked around. What was he going to do now? He can't try his hand at fuuinjutsu again, he wasn't continue going to be a nuisance to the others who were still sleeping. He then saw a leaf just idly flittering on the ground, blown by the gentle night wind and his question was answered.

He immediately picked it up and put it into his hands, "So what are you doing up anyway Ino?" He queried as he concentrated on the leaf inbetween his hands. He was going to get this dammit, he just knew it, "Shouldn't a pretty girl like you be fast asleep catching up on her beauty sleep?" He stopped and groaned to himself, "Oh forget I just said that."

Fucking Jiraiya...he really needed to spend less time with the man. Next thing he knows, he'll be actively looking forward to peeking with him.

Ino couldn't do as she was asked though, "Oh Naruto, who knew you were such a charming little boy?" This was just far too delicious for her to let go. So Naruto thought that she was attractive? That was exceedingly great to know. It did wonders for her to know that. When it came to Sasuke, it was like trying to get a response from a brick wall, he never reacted to anything she tried, "I wonder how Sakura would take to you flirting with me like this. Under the starry night and moonlight?" Now that she thought about it, Hinata probably wouldn't be too pleased about this either.

Naruto's eyebrow twitched as he went back to his previous activity, "I thought I asked you to forget what I just said?" Sakura was the last thing he wanted to talk about. He was still sorting out his own feelings on the matter. Being told and even seeing it right in front of him still didn't stop some fibre of his being into still being lovelorn over her.

Speaking of which, Sakura knew how he felt about her, it was rather obvious for anyone that looked, and had then gone onto tell him about her own feelings about Sasuke? The bitch, what about his own feelings? Argh, dammit. He was a man, man didn't care about this sort of sentimental stuff.

"And where would the fun be in that?" It just wasn't in her nature to let something like this down. Especially if it would be as half as entertaining as this subject was.

"Come on Ino," Naruto said, voice rather steely, "Let's just drop this whole thing can we?" It was more of a statement than a request.

And Ino could feel that Naruto wasn't really willing to play along with her this time. So she decided to change the subject, there was no point in getting on Naruto's bad side, if he actually had one, when she was working with him.

Her new subject immediately came to light when she noticed a part of the leaf in his hand, "Naruto," She began, "So what's with the leaf?"

Naruto let out a mental sigh as Ino changed the subject. The previous one had been going in a direction he wasn't comfortable in, "Training."

Ino looked at Naruto's hands some more before shaking her head, "Okay, I'm lost," She said, "How is this training?"

Naruto grinned as he turned to face her, "I'm trying to cut this leaf in half with nothing more than chakra." He said as he showed her the leaf that had a rather jaggy cut going through it's length, nearing half-way.

Ino saw this, but still didn't understand, "Yeah," She sort of drawled out lamely, "I'm going to need more than that Blondie."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the new name she was calling him, but put it to the side for now, "I'm cutting this leaf with chakra because it's the first step in my wind chakra training."

Ino blinked, "Wind?" She said, rather surprised.

Naruto nodded as he went back to the leaf in his hands, "Yeah wind." He scrunched up his face, "Rather difficult to master though." He shook his head in amusement, "I've been doing ever since the Crash and I still haven't got smooth cuts in the leaf like I'm supposed to have."

"Maybe you can ask Asuma-sensei." Ino suggested from the side after thinking it over.

Naruto turned to look at her, "Asuma-sensei?" He repeated, rather confused at that suggestion, "Why would I ask Asuma-sensei about this?" He looked to be the same sort of lazy like Kakashi and thus couldn't at all be that helpful could he? 'Probably not.' He thought. He wasn't going to say that outloud in front of one of his students. Kakashi might have been one of the laziest people he would ever come across, but he would still defend his sensei if someone badmouthed him.

Ino crossed her arms over her chest, "Because he's got that wind chakra stuff too." She really didn't know the specifics, but in the few times that she had seen him fight during missions, he used it to coat his weapons in wind chakra. Well, that's what he called it anyway.

Naruto's eyes widened, "You're not messing with me are you Ino?" Because if she was, it wouldn't end pretty. He had been meaning to ask someone for tips about this, probably the Sandaime the man apparently knew a little bit about everything, but he hadn't had the time to seek him out. But if there was actually someone like him who used wind chakra, then that was even more brilliant than he had thought it would be.

"Why would I mess with you?" Ino asked as she looked at Naruto strangely. Naruto just in turn gave her a look. He didn't need to speak to get the message across. Getting the message, Ino looked away brashly with a rosy tint to her cheeks, "Shut up Naruto."

Naruto just grinned as he flashed a thumbs up for his little impromptu victory.

XxX

"Hm," The pink-haired thief from before merely hummed as he looked around the perimeter of the mention with an even look on his face, "That's quite a lot of Kage Bunshin." He idly commented as he noticed the rather frighteningly large amount of blonde haired teens moving around the perimeter, acting as lookouts.

Beside him, also hidden in the shadows of the night was Mizuri, "K-Kage Bunshin?" She stammered out, "You must be joking Hikaru. They can't be Kage Bunshin." She knew the jutsu, and she was also well aware of the large amount of chakra needed to just make on. But what she was seeing might as well have been the size of a platoon of them, "Maybe they're just ordinary, normal clones." The ones that were nothing more than mere illusions and didn't pose any sort of threat and more of an irritation than anything else.

Kei grunted from the ground he stood on, "If he says they're Kage Bunshin, they're Kage Bunshin." The way he had said that, he had said it without any sort of doubt into the pink-haired young man's observation.

And why wouldn't he? Hikaru was a sensor. He could sense chakra, and Kage Bunshin had chakra split into them.

Even knowing this, Mizuri still had her doubts, "Still…" This made their plan a little more difficult than before. She didn't even think the group of three genins and lone chunin could hold a candle to them. But apparently, the blonde runt of the team had enough chakra to create a veritable army of clones of himself.

Kei looked up from his position to the kunoichi, "I thought you said you had scouted them?" He said, his voice gruff and aggressive, "How did you miss this?" It couldn't have been that difficult to notice a brat suddenly make such a large amount of copies of himself.

"I didn't _miss_ it." Mizuri said in a seething manner towards Kei, eyes looking down with anger in them, "I saw him do it and I figured they were clones. How would I have known a chunin, a rookie at that one too, knew a jounin-rank _forbidden_ jutsu?" She defended herself.

Kei would admit to himself that she made some points, but as far as he was concerned, this didn't excuse this lack of oversight, "It doesn't matter. You should have made sure."

Mizuri rolled her eyes, "By what?" She asked, "Destroying one of them and alerting the rest to my presence." She was well aware of the special characteristics of this jutsu.

Kei moved to respond before Hikaru intervened with a raised hand, "Calm down. Mizuri isn't at fault here. Could you have done better Kei?" Hikaru asked as he continued looking at the mansion, counting the Kage Bunshins he could see.

Kei crossed his arms and his muscular frame leaned on the trunk of the tree, "No." He admitted, "But I would have crushed those brats before they even knew what hit them." Apart from one of them that apparently had enough chakra to throw out a jutsu like this like it was nothing, they didn't look tough, even the one that spammed the jutsu.

"That's not how we work." Hikaru said with a shake of the head. Individual heroics were frowned upon in the group. Not because they particularly cared about each other. The relationship between Kei and Mizuri being evidence enough, it was more along the lines of the age old adage of 'There's no honour among thieves'. They just couldn't trust each other to not make out with the goods on their own.

The only reason they worked together was because they were specialists so to say. Kei was the muscle, and he had the mentality to be the muscle also. Mizuri acted like the eyes and ears of the group, scoping out their targets and Hikaru, well Hikaru was the brain. It was simple like that.

Hikaru brought his hands together in a ram seal, "Hold on." He said as he closed his eyes. It was all good and everything counting the Kage Bunshin with his eyes, but those were the only ones he could see. For all he knew, there could be other hidden in one way or another, "Clever little brat." He said after a while before opening his eyes, "It seems we're going to have to make changes to our plans."

Kei and Mizuri turned their heads to him. Hikaru continued speaking, "It seems our original idea to go in all quiet like has to be thrown out of the window." Naruto had made sure that every possible entrance and any other place was littered with Kage Bunshins in the open or Henge'd into something, "Seems like we're going to have to go in loud."

Kei just let a brutal grin come across his features as he smacked a fist into a palm, "Loud?" He repeated, "We haven't done that in a while. Excellent." He really wasn't putting away the notion that all he was good for was battering heads in.

XxX

(Next Day)

"Alright Naruto," Tenten began as she stood opposite Naruto, a bo staff in hand, "You ready for this?" She asked as she lazily swung her staff in her hand.

Naruto let out a snort, "I was born ready." He replied to the question, in his hands his two go-to-blades of action.

Tenten merely shook her head in amusement, "You say that, yet you have actually never managed to beat me in a straight out fight." She idly pointed out, with something of a smirk on her features.

"Only because I was holding back." Something told him that was probably the most incorrect thing to say to Tenten...ever, like he was asking for some sort of deathwish.

He was proven correct as Tenten's demeanour changed from playful to outright murderous as she set herself up in a stance and glared playfully, and playfully in the loosest sense of the word, at Naruto, "Holding back you say?" She repeated slowly, "I wonder if that's because I'm a girl?"

Naruto knew enough of his sparring partner that it probably wasn't the healthiest of things to answer that question with a 'yes' or any other sentence that said girls were weaker than boys. It wasn't at all healthy and didn't end well for said person.

"No, nothing like that at all." He answered hastily, added with several shakes of the head.

"Oh?" Tenten let out, her demeanour unchanging, "Please do enlighten me the reason then."

Naruto stared at her for several seconds before trying to think of an answer, "Because you're my bestest and most wonderful friend?"

Tenten looked at Naruto, her expression having changed from malicious playfulness to a completely blank one. She then nodded her head as if she understood something, "Oh, alright. I understand now."

Naruto blinked, "You do?" He asked unsurely. Even he wouldn't have understood that lameass reason.

"Yeah," Tenten began before immediately rushing him, "It _is_ because I'm a girl!"

"What, no!" Did she not hear his lameass excuse? It wasn't because she was a girl! It really wasn't! And it wasn't as if he actually held back in their fights. Holding back meant that he would have definitely lost in a pathetic manner. You just couldn't hold back against Tenten, she would have skewered him several times and would have noticed that he was holding back.

The two clashed weapons as they moved around the back garden, "I think you got something wrong Tenten-chan!" Naruto tried to put some sense into the girl as he ducked underneath a swing of her staff.

"I think I understood everything perfectly." Tenten retaliated as she went at Naruto with several high-speed thrusts of her weapon of choice. Naruto finding it rather difficult to deal with them due to the nature of his weapon.

Naruto was on the back foot as he continued trying his best to defend himself against the thrusts. A sword wasn't exactly the best weapon to block thrusts due to its rather small width. He was glad that he wasn't using a rapier, he would have been screwed otherwise.

On the sidelines, Chouji sat down, calmly eating a bag of chips as he watched his two teammates spar against each other. The sound of footsteps and a light yawn attracted his attention to the side, "Oh Ino," Chouji greeted with a small smile, "You slept in."

Ino walked towards where Chouji was sat, "I wasn't aware that we had to get up at a certain time." She said as she took a seat beside her teammate.

Chouji just chuckled at that. She wasn't wrong, ever since they had been here, they had been getting up whenever they wanted. The only ones who had been waking up early in the morning were Naruto and Tenten, mostly due to a force of habit than anything else.

"I guess that's true." The young Akimichi said as he threw some chips into his mouth.

Ino looked over to where Naruto and Tenten were busy sparring against each other, "Why would they be sparring against each other so early in the morning?" Didn't they have other things to do than train?

"It's actually two in the afternoon Ino." Chouji helpfully corrected, "You slept in. By like loads."

Ino just turned to look at Chouji with wide eyes before shaking her head, 'Wow, I must have talked with Naruto for longer than I had thought.' She mused, "So who do you think is going to win then?" She asked Chouji as she wanted to hear her opinion on who of the two ninjas fighting in front of them was going to prevail in this match-up.

"Hm," Chouji stroked his chin in thought as he continued to follow the fight, "Honestly? I don't know, but I think I'd put my money on Naruto."

"Tenten has more experience than Naruto." Ino pointed out, her money being on her fellow blonde's opponent.

"So did Neji." Chouji replied rather cheekily, "But we all know how that turned out. Naruto is tricky. And really strong too nowadays. I don't think I'll be able to beat him in a fight now anyway."

The way he said it, it was like he wholeheartedly believed that Naruto would win if they ever fought against each other. Something that Ino didn't like, "What?" She let out in surprise, "How can you say that? You're plenty strong Chouji."

Chouji shrugged, "Maybe. But Naruto is stronger." He said as he continued to eat his chips, "The fact that he's chunin proves it." He looked at Ino, "Do you think if you had fought Neji and that Gaara guy you would have won?"

Ino looked at Chouji before slowly shaking her head. She then sighed as she propped her head up by her hands, "I guess you have a point." A small, wry smile came across her lips, "I can't believe that the idiot we pegged in the Academy to never become a ninja somehow managed to shoot right past us."

Chouji just let out a good natured chuckle, "Well," He began as he looked up slightly into the sky with a look of remembrance, "He always did say he would make us eat our words."

"Futon: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)!"

A sudden gale of wind went throughout the area, whipping the grass, trees and other loose objects in the direction it was travelling in.

"Dammit Naruto!" Tenten's voice cursed out in the distance, "Stop using those stupid wind jutsus of yours!" She demanded before the sound of clashing steel followed suit, "That's cheating!"

"I don't remember agreeing to anything about not using elemental ninjutsu!" Came Naruto's cheeky reply before abruptly stopping and looking in the direction of the front of the mansion.

Tenten saw his attention elsewhere and stopped, "What, what is it?" She asked, Naruto's sudden stop also attracting his other two elements.

"Some of my clones have just been dispelled." Naruto answered as he tried to sort through the memories of his clones.

Ino walked towards him with a raised eyebrow, "So?" She asked, "What about them dispelling?" She continued before stopping, "Don't tell me a bunch of them just dispelled at the same time and you're getting that migraine thing of yours they give you again are you?"

Naruto shook his head, "No. They didn't dispel themselves." He put a hand to his temple as he soothed the raging headache he was receiving from all of his clones been dispelled at such a quick rate, "Someone dispelled them." That got everyone's attention, "We're under attack."

Tenten quickly got herself together, "From the front of the mansion right?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah."

The weapon using kunoichi quickly turned on her heel and made for that part of the mansion, "Me and Chouji we'll handle it." She said as she ran off, "You guys stay here just in case there's more than one. Come on Chouji!"

"C-Coming!" Chouji yelled out as he quickly got up and made his way as he started to follow after Tenten, trying to catch up to the nimble kunoichi.

"Seems like it's just me and you Blondie." Ino joked out weakly, rather nervous at the notion someone was going through Naruto's shadow clones with the way he was constantly gently rubbing his head.

"Seems like it." Naruto remarked as he tried to get himself together. So it probably wasn't the best of ideas to make such a large amount of clones. It hadn't been this bad during a fight when he made hundreds of them, but that was only because they had little knowledge to pass of back to him anyway and thus give him this much of a migraine.

"Hey, don't forget about me!"

Naruto and Ino turned around to see a young man with pink hair, yeah, pink hair just like Sakura, idly sitting on a tree branch, legs swinging under him. He wore a simple outfit of a white, kimono-like shirt with mesh armour underneath, black pants and sandals.

Naruto and Ino immediately got themselves ready for a confrontation, "Who are you?" Naruto asked, his clones in this particular section of the mansion already having the tree surrounded and at the ready.

"Eh me?" The pink-haired man asked as he pointed at himself, "You can call me Hikaru. You know, like the word light."

"Good to know." Naruto said as he spun a blade in one of his hands, "So what are you doing here Hikaru? And care to explain what's happening in the front of the mansion?" He asked as soon afterward, a large explosion occurred. Naruto and Ino glanced slightly behind them, not willing to take their eyes off their opponent, even with the large amount of clones surrounding the man.

"Heh," Hikaru let out with a smile on his face, "Well, where would the fun be if I just told you that?"

Ino got her hands together in her clan's special hand seal, "Then I guess we'll just have to get it out of you."

Hikaru let out a whistle, "A Yamanaka?" He said as he looked at the purple-clad form of Ino, "You know, you would sell for a lot to the right people." He idly commented, "Maybe even your clan would be willing to pay a rather sizeable ransom for your return."

Naruto growled slightly as his eyes narrowed on the man, an action that was shared with his clones, "Don't think we'll let you do as you please."

Hikaru got himself up to a standing position on the branch, "Oh, I was really hoping that you wouldn't make it easy. I like to have a challenge every now and then."

XxX

(Front of the Mansion - With Tenten & Chouji)

Tenten was the first of the two genin to get themselves to the front of the mansion where the attack was coming from. She came to a halt atop the roof, looking down at the front garden as a man, who seemed to be rippling with muscles dressed in nothing more than tattered brown pants with no sandals or shirt, bulldozed his way through Naruto's clones.

By the way he held himself even when he was being swarmed, the hits he was receiving didn't seem to faze him in the slightest. He just took whatever punishment Naruto's clones gave him and then proceeded to dish out his own, rather destructive punishment. He seemed to be actually enjoying himself as it was now.

'Eh great,' Tenten thought as he saw the man move with surprisingly light feet through punches, kicks and all other kinds of attacks, 'It has to be a taijutsu guy doesn't it?' Well, she trained with taijutsu guys, her team was composed of them. She was sure she could handle this.

At that moment, Chouji landed next to her, looking down below at the destruction that was being brought out by the man. He gulped slightly at seeing the size of the man, "He's…" The young Akimichi began slowly, "Rather big."

Tenten smirked, "We can take him."

Chouji wasn't so convinced, "Yeah...okay, whatever you say." The man didn't seem to have noticed them yet, so he cast a quick look at Tenten, "So what do we do?"

Tenten looked on for a bit, Naruto's clones were running dangerously low in number, "Let's see what he can do for now against Naruto's clones." She suggested their next course of action, "It'll give us an idea of how he fights."

"He seems to like taijutsu." Chouji pointed out, "And seems to be really fast too." He wondered if he could be that fast in the future. It was more than likely he was going to be the one to meet him in hand-to-hand. That speed would overwhelm him.

He placed a hand into his pockets and palmed the pill case in his hands. He didn't want to use them unless necessary.

"Not that fast." Tenten countered. Lee could move that fast, Neji too and he wasn't even as fast as Gai, "But we don't know if he's just taijutsu only. He might also have a few ninjutsu tricks underneath his sleeve." She continued as she continued to observe the fight below her. Naruto's clones really came in handy when it came to early enemy recon. Maybe she could get him to teach her sometime? As payment for her being around to teach him how to use a sword with some skill, "Let's just wait and see."

XxX

"Ha!" Kei barked out as he palmed away yet another clone, "Is this the best you've got you little shit?" He asked as he continued to blitz his way through the clones or just downright power through everything else, "If I knew you were this weak, I should have just stayed home."

The clones backed away from him as they went through several hand seals, "Alright then, since you seem to be all muscles, let's see if you can handle the heat." One clone let out before sucking in air, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!"

The last remaining clones, numbering a dozen in total released several balls of flame straight at Kei. The fireballs roared as they sped towards the man, before meeting him in a large explosion that rose up to the sky in a fiery firestorm.

"Did that do it?" One clone asked as it panted, looking into the smoke covered location of their combined jutsu assault. They had thrown quite their remaining reserves of chakra into that last jutsu. They had enough in them for another jutsu before they had to dispel.

"Doton: Tobi Tsubute (Earth Release: Flying Thrown Stones)!"

Projectiles of rock suddenly shot out from the smoke, hitting several clones and dispelling them. Some clones managed to react fast enough to hit the ground to avoid the projectiles and looked on as the smoke cleared to reveal Kei standing up from a kneeling positions with a grin on his face.

"Guess not." Another clone muttered in response to his now dispelled compatriot.

Kei looked around as he rubbed some smoot off his shoulders, "That wasn't bad." He admitted as his skin still tingled from the heat of the flames, "If that was anyone else, they would be dead." His grin turned downright bloodthirsty, "Unlucky for you little shits, I'm not anybody else."

Kei began the motion to take a step forward before having to immediately move from his position as where he previously stood, shuriken and kunai peppered the location. His muscles might have been powerful enough to withstand the harshest of hits, but that was metal, and they weren't that hard to deflect such a thing.

"Alright," Kei began as he looked around, "Who the fuck did that?" Because it definitely wasn't any of the clones. He had been keeping an eye on all of them, and none of them had made a move to throw any sort of projectile at him. Suddenly, a shadow loomed over him that bloated out the sunlight. He looked up, "What the hell?"

"Baika no Jutsu (Multi-Size Jutsu)!" Chouji bellowed out before tucking his head, arms and legs into himself, "Nikudan Sensha (Human Bullet Tank)!" He then began speeding rapidly as he descended to the ground, crashing straight into Kei, creating a rather sizeable crater.

He drilled into the ground some more just to make sure before dislodging and making his way back to the last remaining clones who were busy cheering him, "Way to go Chouji!"

Chouji reverted to his original body size as he came to a halt beside one of the clones. He laughed sheepishly, "Ah thanks," He said, still eyeing the crater he had made, "But I don't really think its over." The contact had been strange, like he had crushed a rock instead of a human being of blood and bones.

The clones looked at Chouji with raised eyebrows, "What the hell are you talking about?" There was no way anyone could have survived that. They would have been made paste into the ground just by the sheer speed and power Chouji had descended on them from.

Unfortunately, when it came to ninjas, it was always best to assume they had some sort of trick at the ready that would allow them to escape even a situation that should have resulted in death. There was always a trick.

And Kei had one, "You fat shit," The man groused as he got up, pieces of rock falling of his being, as if they had covered him as some sort of armour, "I'll get you back for that. I'm going to kill you nice and slow."

Chouji and the clones looked on as more pieces of rock just fell limply to the ground. The clones couldn't help but think that this seemed rather...familiar. Simply because all you had to do was change the rock for sand and it was Gaara all over again, but this guy wasn't even half as scary.

"Bullshit." One clone let out in deadpan as he saw the man make his way out the crater, "I call fucking bullshit."

Kei let out a life, "There's always some sort of bullshit when it comes to ninjas brat." He eyed Chouji with angry, beady little eyes, "I'm going to enjoy killing you, you fat shit."

The blonde haired clones near Chouji took a few steps to the side as they could feel a sudden change over Chouji. A rather menacing one, which caused them to eye the boy rather warily.

"...I'm not fat." Chouji said lowly, gaining the attention of Kei who looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "I"m just big boned you muscle head!" The Akimichi yelled at the man angrily, fire burning in his eyes. Someone was going to get hurt, and by Chouji's will, it was going to be the guy opposite him.

Kei just looked at him and scoffed, "Big boned, fat," He listed off uncaringly, "What's the difference?"

"This." Chouji said determinedly as he brought his hands together into a hand seal, "Baika no Jutsu (Multi-Size Jutsu)!"

Kei looked on as Chouji expanded in size, "I fail to see what you're trying to make me see here. In fact, you just proved my point of you being fat."

An eery silence rolled through the area, broken by a breeze of wind.

The silence was soon broken by Chouji who tucked himself into his body, "Nikudan Sensha (Human Bullet Tank)!"

From her hiding place, Tenten just rolled her eyes. Well, at least he was all revved up for the fight now and didn't need some patting on the back.

XxX

(Back of the Mansion - With Naruto & Ino)

"Stand still you son of a bitch!"

Hikaru evaded several lunges made by Naruto's clones, "Now why would I do that?" He asked with a mirthless tone to his voice, "If I stood still, you would hit me, and I would rather not be hit see. Being hit hurts."

The original came up towards the pink haired man with a burst of speed and went to separate his head from his shoulders with the help of his swords, "That's the point!" He let out as he slashed at his diagonally.

Hikaru was more than skilled enough to duck his head underneath the attack, "But why would I want to get myself hurt?" He asked before making space and going through hand seals, "Suiton: Mizurappa (Water Release: Violent Water Wave)!"

A violent, powerful wave of water shot out from Hikaru's mouth that hit Naruto straight in the chest, sending him spiralling backwards. Seeing movement, the thief twisted his head to the side and water followed and like a whip, smashed into the sides of several clones with enough force to dispel them.

"Naruto!" Ino cried out when she saw her teammate get sent flying backwards, only for him to burst into smoke, signifying a substitution, but there was no log, which meant one of his clones had taken the hit for him.

"Hey pretty little lady," Hikaru's voice rang out from behind her, "I'm sort of hurt that you're paying all your attention on him. I'm here too you know."

On instinct more than anything else, Ino lashed out with a spinning kick behind her, forcing Hikaru to move back, allowing Ino to make some space between them. She smirked at her opponent, "Sorry, but you aren't my type."

Hikaru smirked playfully, "And the blonde one is? Is it because he's blonde like you? That's not very wide net you cast. Got to have some variety."

Ino went into her pack and took out some kunai and threw them at Hikaru, "I guess I should also have said I have something against people with pink hair!" He was cute, but the pink hair was a definite no contest.

Hikaru dodged the flying projectiles and cursed playfully, "Damn. It wasn't as if I'm interest in little girls with no chests anyway."

Ino just looked on shocked, "...No chest?" She repeated after a while, her shock evident in her voice. Then her expression took one of outrage, "I'll have you know, I'm still a growing girl and my chest is bigger than others!"

Hikaru just nodded playfully, the smirk on his face widening at the reaction he got from the platinum blonde haired girl, "Yeah, sure whatever you sa-." He had to quickly vacate his position as Naruto burst out from underground in a rising slash, "Sneaky." The man said before finding himself unable to move as something clasped onto his ankles. He looked down, "The hell?" He muttered when he saw hands gripping onto his ankles.

Naruto grinned as he went in for the kill, "What can I say? I'm sneaky!" The blonde said as he brought down his sword to split the guy into two straight down the middle. Gruesome? Yes. Effective? Bloody yes it was. He had yet to come across anything that stood up after something like that.

But something was strange, there should have been far more resistance than that when he made contact with his sword. He looked up and saw 'Hikaru' nothing more than a glob of water...that had several exploding tags burning away.

Naruto didn't even bother to register the feeling of alarm he had, instead, he said the words that best described his situation, "Fuck."

And the tags exploded right then and there. Showering the area with water, and steam rising into the air from the original place of detonation, that had caused a decent sized crater.

Ino would have called out, if it wasn't for the fact that not long afterwards, a figure jumped out of the steam cloud and landed next to her. It was Naruto, his skin was spotting a few burns here and there, but nothing to much, but the worst one was his arm.

The skin around his right arm was scaldingly red and looked to be rather painful. Kudos had to be given to Naruto for not showing it.

"You alright there Blondie?" Ino asked as she eyed Naruto worryingly.

Naruto let out a small wince as he shook the hand to get some feeling into it, "I've had worse." He reassured her, "Don't worry about it. It will heal before you even know it." He finished off before turning the conversation into a more mental one, 'Kyuubi...'

"**Weakling."** Was all the acknowledgement he got, but he could feel the Kyuubi's chakra heading in the direction of his arm. He might not like him, but the Kyuubi's survival depended on Naruto, and thus, a healthy Naruto equalled a very alive Kyuubi.

Ino didn't seem to believe him, but the tone of Naruto's voice said it all. That she should just believe that he'll be fine and just like he said, his arm will be fine soon enough. She wanted to question him on that, no-one healed that fast, but she doubted she would get any information out of him.

And anyway, this wasn't the time for questions. They had a fight on their hands, a fight that needed their full on attention. This Hikaru person had showed himself to be no pushover in the slightest.

"Fine Blondie. Just don't drag me down with that limp arm of yours." She eventually let out playfully, hiding her concern.

Naruto scoffed, "As if something like a limp arm will bring me down. Clearly you don't know who I am."

Ino rolled her eyes, "Whatever." She then noted the crater and holes, "Just don't make anymore holes would you? This is private property and the damage costs might come out of our pockets."

"I can't promise anything."

Well, she tried.

XxX

The blonde kid reminded him of someone. He just couldn't place it, but his features were definitely unique. Like anyone should spot them from miles away. There was just something about that bright blonde hair and blue eyes that seemed familiar.

Whatever, right now, there was a fight going on and he might as well see what the kid had going for him. Maybe if he impressed him enough, he might put in a good word for him and he wouldn't have to go through the selection exam every new guy went through.

...But then again, Hikaru wasn't really that tough of an opponent. Well for someone like him, but for someone like the kid? He may just be a tough cookie to cut. He'll just have to wait and see.

XxX

(Inside The Mansion - The Vault)

Everything was going to plan. Kei had managed to attract the fat one to the front of the building and Hikaru was busying himself with the two blonde ninjas in the back. The only worrying thing was that the bun-haired one had yet to make an appearance.

Oh well, even if she didn make an appearance, she was sure she could handle her easily enough.

Mizuri made her way into the vault, there were some stringent security arrays, but nothing a few explosive notes here, a doton jutsu there couldn't handle. And voila, she soon found herself standing in front of a massive metal vault door.

A greedy smile came onto her face. She wondered how much that fool of a noble had in that vault in terms of treasure? It had to be a lot if they were completely and utterly ignoring the paintings, furniture, vases and other antiques in the house itself.

She rubbed her hands together, "Alright, let's do this." It could be so easy to take all the treasure for herself and just go. But then she would have Kei and Hikaru on her tail. Hikaru had more than enough contacts to track her down if need be.

This wasn't the time to get side-tracked with her own greed. It was time to work.

"Stop right there motherfucker!"

Oh you had to be kidding her, how the hell did the blonde idiot know she was here? Wasn't Hikaru handling him?

Mizuri quickly dug into her orb and pulled out several senbon, turned on her heel and threw them at the blonde behind her.

Naruto's eyes widened as he recognised the person in front of him, "Mizur-." He didn't finish off his sentence as the senbon hit him in the throat and heart. And instead of just falling to the floor dead, Naruto dispelled into smoke.

"Fuck!" Mizuri cursed, "A Kage Bunshin." She quickly turned around and made for the vault. She now had to work quickly and get inside and get the goods. The rest would no wonder be alerted to her presence now and would probably come sooner or later to stop her, "Stupid blonde brat."

* * *

**AN: It's here! On a side note, I find myself somewhat disappointed by how Naruto had ended. Not really the best of endings in my opinion, but hey, who am I to say? Well, whatever. **

**Enjoy the new chapter boys and girls. Next chapter is the fights and everything in detail, maybe even the conclusion to this little arc of mine!**

**Leave a review.**


End file.
